By Subhash K. Jha
Film: “Accident On Hill Road”; Cast: Celina Jaitley, Abhimanyu Singh, Farooque Shaikh

Rating: **

There’s a man stuck on your windscreen! That’s what you want to scream to Celina Jaitley. But gosh, she does so much of that screaming herself that you don’t really want to add to the din in this gory tale that takes place at night.

Celina oozes oomph and is the backbone of this ‘being bad is good’ upturned morality tale. After having knocked down a poor pedestrian (Farooque Shaikh), who spends the rest of the movie stuck to the windshield, the nurse frantically tries to find ways to get rid of the writhing man.

Agony is the film’s main ecstasy. This genre of horror cinema revels in creating acute discomfort and gruesome circumstances for the characters to a point where the audience is actually supposed to enjoy the ceaseless chill spill.

“Accident On Hill Road” is road rage in all its gory splendour, committed to creating a string of incidents that suggest a vicarious mayhem. Debutant direct Mahesh Nair lets loose a binge of blood and gore.

This is Celina’s first real opportunity to sink her teeth into an author-backed role. And she does get into her meaty role…

Then meet her boyfriend - a drug peddler called Sid, playing with menacing aggressiveness by Abhimanyu Singh. What happened to all the noble evil-warring heroes of our films? Sid is so immoral he makes Mogambo look like a cartoon hero.

Apparently adapted from Hollywood horror flick “Stuck”, “Accident On Hill Road” leaves you shaken by its gore-quotient… But not quite stirred.

The original Hollywood film probably describes not just the physical state of the accident victim but also the psychological condition of the audience.

This accident could have been avoided. Since it has has occurred and with screeching tyres, it might as well be borne.