Hisss (2010)

Based on the Far Eastern myth of the snake woman who is able to take on human form.

Director:

Jennifer Lynch

Writers:

Jennifer Lynch, Gulfam Khan (dialogue)

Stars:

Mallika Sherawat, Irrfan Khan, Jeff Doucette

Cast

Credited cast:
Mallika Sherawat	...	Snake Woman
Irrfan Khan	...	Vinkram Gupta
Jeff Doucette	...	George States
Divya Dutta	...	Maya Gupta
Raman Trikha	...	Rookie Navin
Mahmoud Babai	...	Snake Charmer / Dinesh (as Mahmood Babai)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Raj Bhansali	...	Snake charmer's son
Sunny Charles	...	Guide 1 / Abusive Father
Tony Ciccone	...	Narrator
Parvez Khan	...	Guard 4 (as Parvez Fazal Khan)
Govind Menon	...	Coroner
Sunita Rajwar	...	Drunken Guard's wife
Sunit Razdan	...	Police Officer
Meenakshi Thakur	...	Snake Charmer's Wife

Storyline

Desperate brain cancer-ridden Caucasian George States, with only six months to live, decides to capture a male cobra with hopes of obtaining Nagmani from the shape shifting Naga female. For reasons that remain obscure throughout the film, this will not only cure his brain cancer but also make him immortal. He hires workers in the jungles of Natchi, Tamil Nadu, who witness the intimacy of the cobras, and capture the male, allowing the female to escape. George then holds the male cobra in a glass cage in the hopes that the female cobra will attempt a rescue, and he will then release it in exchange for the Nagamani. The region experiences horror and religious awakening after the enraged female cobra. With the image of its oppressor in its eyes, sheds its snake skin and takes on a female human form, setting out on its deadly mission of tracking down and destroying her mate's oppressor, and whoever else gets in her way, whether involved or not.

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Plot Keywords:

snake | snake woman | f rated | holi | cautionary tale | 

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Taglines:

She's sexy... venomous... and she'll swallow you whole...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Jennifer Lynch's struggle to make the film was released as a documentary in 2012 by the name of Despite The Gods (2012).

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Connections

Featured in Shruti Hassan: Beyond the Snake (2010)

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Soundtracks

Beyond The Snake
Performed by Dave Kushner and Shruti Haasan
Written by Dave Kushner, Frankie Perez and Shruti Haasan

User Reviews

The film has got nothing but Mallika shows her amazing daring guts to do this.

First of all let me clear the buzz of HISSS being a foreign flick. No, its not a Hollywood film from any angle. Yes, it's reportedly been directed by a western name, Jennifer Lynch. But the name remains the only foreign touch in an otherwise totally Indian movie, which is more like a B class Bollywood film packaged and promoted well.

Secondly, yes the film is based on a HIT and interesting topic of an Ichhadhari Nagin but the overall result on the screen is not even close to what we have already seen in Reena Roy's NAGIN (1976) and Sridevi's NAGINA (1986) or even in its not so successful sequel NIGAHEN (1989). The film is just a collage of various graphical scenes without any good story build up or enjoyable musical soundtrack. Moreover the erratic background score further reduces the impact of its engrossing theme to the least.

Thirdly, if you are expecting a great computer graphics show in the movie displaying a human body's transformation into and out of a snake, then you are going to get disappointed in that section of the film too. The graphics used in HISSS are not bad but at the same time they also don't offer anything great or exceptional to enjoy. In fact watching ANACONDA once again would be a far better choice to opt, if you are really interested in watching the big snake movements in front of you.

In the acting arena, I was simply stunned to see two highly talented actors Irrfan Khan and Divya Dutta agreeing to do such strange kind of roles where they simply have nothing to do except showing their known faces on the screen. Especially, Why Irrfan opted for such kind of LOW in his otherwise famous career is simply beyond any logical explanation.

So after pulling down the movie in almost all its departments……what can be a possible merit of watching HISSS? That's the pleasure of watching the Sky-High Confidence of the girl called Mallika Sherawat. The conviction with which she portrays her role of a Ichhadhari Nagin is indeed commendable even when she is not speaking a single dialogue in the film. And further her amazingly daring GUTS to opt for all those nude body scenes and love-making scene with the snake is undoubtedly applaudable.

Truly speaking, even when the movie was completely a wash out for me in all aspects, still the girl managed to keep me hooked somehow with her unbelievable kind of confidence and a passionate performance. So if you are really interested in watching Mallika in the most daring act of her entire career then HISSS may work for you. Otherwise it would be better to watch the movie only after its DVD release.

Rating : 1.5 / 5 (0.5 more only for the confidence level of Mallika).

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India USA

Language:

English Hindi

Release Date:

22 October 2010 (India)

Also Known As:

Nagin: The Snake Woman

Filming Locations:

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Split Image Pictures, Venus Records & Tapes

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1