Hisss (2010)

Hisss (2010) Hisss is a fantasy adventure film directed by Jennifer Lynch. Indian actress Mallika Sherawat plays the lead role. She’s a real eye-catcher (given that she’s very beautiful, often naked or dressed in her sultry red dress) and that may be the only interest for some viewers… because, let’s face it: this film really isn’t that great!

It’s easy to watch, like a TV film. The story is pretty ridiculous, even though I’ve got nothing against legends. The special effects are bad. The make-up is a little less so. The direction is interesting at times. The actors are decent, especially if you know anything about Indian cinema. All in all, it’s a B-movie that’s a good laugh if you’ve got nothing else to watch.

Mallika Sherawat is an Indian actress who works mainly in Hindi films. Known for her already daring on-screen performances in films such as Khwahish (2003) and Murder (2004), Sherawat has established herself as a sex symbol in Bollywood.

Sherawat was born under the name Reema Lamba. She was one of the few Bollywood stars to try and break into Hollywood, with films like this one, alas, because I don’t think it did her career any good. It’s worth noting that she did quite a bit of posing with a snake in front of journalists during the promotion of the film. Incidentally, it seems to me that this film is the only one to show a sex scene between two snakes… as well as one between a woman and a snake! In any case, I’d never seen anything like it before…

The film was written by Jennifer Lynch, an American filmmaker and not an Indian, as you might think from the film and its cast. Yes, yes, she is the daughter of filmmaker David Lynch! She made her directorial debut with the film Boxing Helena in 1993.

In fact, Jennifer is a director, screenwriter, producer and also an actress. Apart from this career, Lynch wrote the book The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer in 1990. Told from the point of view of the character of the same name from her father’s TV series, Twin Peaks, the novel was a commercial success, reaching number four on the New York Times paperback fiction bestseller list that year.

Since 2012, Lynch has also been fairly focused on directing episodes of television series, including Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Once Upon a Time, Hawaii Five-0, Elementary and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

But this latest film, also known as Nagin: The Snake Woman, is apparently not Lynch’s work, although the producers have attached his name to the final product. According to Wikipedia, she explained in a 2012 interview:

‘Well, in the end, I didn’t get the chance to make this film. I put together my director’s cut and the producers decided it wasn’t what they wanted. They took it back to India. I never did any music, cutting, colouring or anything else you do to make the film. They took the images and turned them into what they wanted them to be. So it’s not my film. I went to India and shot some footage, but I had nothing to do with the film they made.’

Any justification for the film being so bad?
My message would rather be: If you discover Jennifer Lynch through this feature film, you should above all avoid jumping to conclusions and immediately saying that it’s a disgrace to be the daughter of one of the greatest directors and to do such shoddy work. No !!!
Go and see her other films so you can really judge!

My Rating