Since a longtime, there has been
a question that’s making people sleepless more than the spooky elements in an
RGV film. How does he convince producers to fall in the line of fire? Many a
time we see him dishing out the same story with different cast and this time
with Icecream, which is promoted as
“Fear is hot” he gets into a repeat mode with the same story that’s done to
death and the same scene that travels in a loop. That’s Varma hitting a new
low.
Icecream is yet another film that hovers on the theme of a haunted
house and a girl trying to stay put all the night amid ghosts or, as they call
in the film, illusions of ghosts. She believes them initially but later on
denies their existence and labels it as some disorder. Though the film-maker
says the story (if at all there’s any) is inspired from a real life incident,
it seems like a thread woven by taking cues from 1 Nenokkadine. Renu (Tejaswi) is the gal here and she wants her
friend Vishal (Navadeep) to believe her story. So does he believe and are there
any ghosts or just illusions forms the flimsy plot.
The main culprit for Icecream is the narrative mode that
makes it too predictable. The same mirror reflections, at times the Psycho shower scenes, callous supporting
cast who try to pump some fear with their expressions, and above all, an
illogical justification for the film’s title. So our protagonist has only three
things to do: take a shower, eat icecream and romance the guy – all under the
pretext of studying. When these things get into a time warp after frequent
intervals, you tend to kill yourself before the ghost kills someone on screen.
One thing to fancy about the film
is RGV’s new-found love for flowcam. This one is touted as the future of
cinematography and is aptly used in this film. There’s a seamless flow of
visuals as this cam allows for long shots. However, the uncanny camera angles
of the director stay till eternity with any technology he embraces. The visuals
are coupled with flow-sound technique, which’s another new for this film. With an impeccable sound design, most
of the simple scenes are fine tuned for an immersible experience. The credits are also done differently.
The publicity for the film was
sky high and everyone walked into cinema with loads of excitement. Alas! This
film could be another RGV product that won’t satiate his fans or regular audience
alike. If he does the same again and again, with all these chinks his armour may
soon get crushed. Every time people watch his films expecting them to be his
best works and for many, including me, there’s still a ray of hope that the
genius in this film-maker may take a rebirth. Till that time, you can stay away
from this Icecream, which makes you
laugh rather than scream!
My Rating: Expectation - 6/10; Reality - 3/10
This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.
An edited version of this piece can be found here.
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