The story of Dobaara revolves around the incident that leaves a normal Britain based Indian family shattered. Siblings Natasha Merchant (Huma) and Kabir Merchant (Saqib) have been living apart for the night their father shot their mother and Kabir shot their father in return.Their father did not just lose it and kill their mother, he was possessed by an evil mirror. A mirror that Natasha has promised to find and kill. The movie follows the siblings’ efforts to destroy the mirror that very well knows how to protect itself. In the attempt, they relive that night, have hallucinations induced by the mirror and do something horrible. Though a remake, Dobaara has been able to capture the essence of the effectiveness of subtle horror that creeps up to the audience rather than the jump scares and the glamour quotient of a hot girl walking around a haunted mansion in her underwear. The only place we wished the movie could improve was the fact that the mirror was shown haunted by a woman.Giving a face to the unknown in a horror flick is one of the biggest blunders as it takes away from the fear of not knowing who is being dealt with.All it relies on is a good theme, good actors and the correct placement of scares. All in all, had Dobaara not been the remake of a film, it would probably have 4 stars for the ingenuity of the concept.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, are you the most evil of them all? This is a question, 25-year-old Natasha keeps asking a haunted mirror, an exhibit that is waiting to be auctioned in the gallery she works at. Kabir and Natasha’s plan to destroy the mirror doesn’t necessarily work out, as it turns out that the ghost who resides in the mirror (Madalina) has other plans in store for them. Adapted from the Hollywood horror film Oculus (2014), Dobaara allows for some moments of fear, apprehension, dread and scare. Borrowing the template of the original, this paranormal thriller uses flashback as a technique to spook the audience and it is definitely above the desi horror, the Bollywood audience is subjected to. The recollections are a mix of illusions and nightmares that the lead players see, each time they look into the haunted mirror. This one had the potential to be more, but it seems so stretched at times that you are almost willng to get behind the screen yourself and kill someone. Things play out twice once in their childhood and again when they are older, but some of the spooky bits are unintentionally funny. The background score jars and the pace is dreary because it depends too much on repetitive dialogue. The cast—Huma, Saqib and Adil are sincere. But they themselves seem to be victims of a scary (pun-intended) film.