Ragini MMS

About the film

Ragini MMS is a 2011 Indian found-footage horror film directed by Pawan Kripalani and produced by Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms. It was released on 13 May 2011 (Friday the 13th). The film is inspired by the 2007 American supernatural horror film Paranormal Activity and is partly based on the real story of a girl from Delhi named Deepika.

Plot

The whole film is shot as a homemade movie, starting with Uday arriving at Ragini's home. After asking Uday where they are heading and getting no response, Ragini's friend, Pia, gets upset and wants Uday to leave their house immediately. Uday pays no heed to her, wakes Ragini up from her sleep, and tells her to get ready for their weekend getaway. They then travel to Uday's 'house' – a mysterious abandoned building at a deserted location. Ragini's mom calls her to ask her whereabouts, but Ragini lies and hangs up.

It is revealed that Uday is involved in the business of making and selling sex tapes of innocent girls. This time the victim is Ragini, who thinks that he loves her. They try to have sex, but are interrupted by Pia and her boyfriend Vishal visiting them. Furious by their visit, Uday tells Ragini to get rid of them, but they end up staying for a while.

Vishal asks Uday for the way to the bathroom and Uday tells him. Vishal tells Uday that a woman previously lived in the house, who was called a witch by her family. The family killed her, following which her spirit murdered them and has since been haunting the house. Uday laughs at this story and walks away. Vishal hesitantly makes his way back to the living room but senses someone behind him.

Production

The film was originally titled Raginni MMS but a numerologist advised Ekta Kapoor to change it to Ragini MMS. The film took only 25 days to shoot. A total of six cameras were used to shoot the film including a Canon 7D, an Arri Alexa and a Handycam. The size of the total footage shot was around 2.5 terabytes. The movie was released on VCD and DVD. The Satellite distribution rights were given to Hindi general entertainment channel Sahara One.

Release

The producer of the film, Ekta Kapoor, promoted her movie in an episode of Sony Entertainment Television's CID, which was aired coincidentally with the movie's release.

The film had a midnight première on 13 May 2011 in Pune. The film opened to a very good response in its first week, grossing ₹ 77.5 million. It was steady during its second week and grossed ₹ 99.4 million at the end of its second week. The film recovered its cost within two days of release.

Reception

Upon release, the film met with mixed reviews.

Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave it 4/5 stars and called it a "creepy, spine-chilling date movie" saying, "Ragini MMS amalgamates components of horror, paranormal and sex seamlessly. It titillates, it petrifies, but most importantly, it tells you a story which is daunting, imaginative and unconventional."

Naresh Deoshi from Apunka Choice also gave the film 4/5 stars calling it "a damn scary film!"

Soundtrack

The music is composed by S. D. Burman, Shamir Tandon, Faizan Hussain, Agnel Roman, and Bappi Lahiri. The soundtrack for the film was released on 19 April 2011. It consists of only four songs, including the hit song "Raat Akeli Hai" from the 1967 film, Jewel Thief. Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1 is also heard in pieces in this film.

Sequel

A sequel to the movie, Ragini MMS 2 was made and released on 21 March 2014. Continuing the story, the sequel focused on a film crew who went back to the haunted house to shoot a film on the infamous Ragini MMS scandal. It was directed by Bhusan Patel.

Key details