After hundreds and hundreds of violence laden vigilante revenge thrillers and endless ritual based sing song sessions comes a film that is both a breath of fresh air as well as a bit of a slap in the face.

Kaun takes considerable risks as its subject matter and treatment are basically not the staple diet of desi cinemagoers to a greater extent - though this is a weakness it is also illogically, the films sole strength as at least it is noticeable from the crowd, the deluge, due by the mere fact that it is different....a desi slasher movie is certainly far removed from 99% of the stuff being spewed out by the greater Bollywood film industry.

So, before even taking a look at the movie's pro's and con's, let's congratulate the producers for at least daring to stray from the beaten to death track. To take chances, to try to extend the barriers within film making is a commendable effort in itself - yet having said all that , Kaun fails spectacularly in achieving any of the goals it sets itself.

The plot involves a young lone woman on a dark stormy night besieged by a couple of strangers, either one of whom could be the psychotic killer that the TV news keeps warning about. The director attempts to pile on the tension from the very onset and after an amusing little title ditty. "Kaun? Don't Open The Door!" wails away the singer to a foreboding beat!

Urmila is the girl caught up on a dreadfully monstrous night, and after she hearss the newsflash that warns of a deranged killer on the loose…….well then, we'll leave the rest to up to you.

The film is in the vein of an older Bollywood thriller "Ittefaq" but any sign of subtlety is dropped for a much more direct approach for an MTV generation. Kaun employs some of the most tried and tested and utterly stale horror film clichés and formula scenes in an effort to infuse some tension into proceedings.

Forever our damsel in distress hears noises emanating form different corners of the house - so every couple of minutes we have scenes where Urmila is seen slowly edging, nervously towards the source of the mysterious sound…….she creeps up ever so slowly to a door or to look underneath the bed, and all of a sudden a cat leaps out!

It's OK to have one or two such scenes along the way, but to base a movie upon such scenes!? Here we are subjected to a similar kind of scene just about every two or three minutes for the first half hour of the film. This was the directors desperate attempt at setting an eerie mood and he certainly tries very hard indeed.

That aside, there is the enormously grating performance by the three actors involved. Urmila gives a stupendously hideous performance to rival that of Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls. Here is an actress who dazzles with her sheer awfulness in this role. One just has to crack up as she breaks into a fantastic rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to convey to us the gravity of her situation.It's a colossally awful performance worth going a long way to watch. Could she have been any worse? Could Twinkle have done a worse job still?

Then there is the hugely lauded Manoj Bajpai whose mannerisms are enough to drive one completely mad. In the short space of an hour and twenty odd minutes he must say the word "Ma'am" at least six hundred times - its infuriating beyond belief. His, is actually the least horrid of the performances as Sushant is an embarrassment in his brief stint.

Bajpai can at least claim to be playing the role of a truly moronic and irritating character in the film which can somewhat exonerate his own show. The film is shorn of any semblance of subtlety and every supposed nuance is pounded home with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

The problem is, and it is a considerable one with this movie, that the effort and strain shows through every frame and every scene. The whole exercise seems to be so forced and unnatural and the characters trying desperately hard to do justice to their roles. Everything is terribly overdone, overcooked and horribly overwrought. The entire effort shows and it appears a very laboured show despite the very short running time of the movie itself. The finale which is supposed to send shock waves of terror through you before you go home, had us giggling in delight at the events unfolding on screen.

Urmila's antics in the climactic scenes are truly hysterically funny and worthy of repeat viewing. The music director also deserves a mention simply because his is an untiring effort if not an entirely successful one at creating some of the tension that is so sorely needed to sustain the film. He does a reasonable job, it must be said.

Yet having ripped the poor movie apart mercilessly, and it is actually so redundant after the opening ten minutes - again we ought to reiterate that at least the producers ought to be commended for trying something new, something different to the zillion revenge thrillers and romantic frolics that one is inundated with so all in all it's a noble effort, if a totally misguided one.

Oh, well nice try, even though the result is a horror farce of a movie with serious camp/cult pretensions Please spare a thought for the poor molested cat, and also note happily that it was seen breathing merrily when supposed to be dead as a dodo!