Column: Hisss

If William Congreve ever met Nagin, he probably would reaffirm his famous quote. You know, the one people commonly mistake from his 1697 masterpiece, The Master Bride, where people think he said “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorn”? Congreve definitely did not meet Nagin, who came to being five millennia earlier, but his actual words of “Nor Hell a fury like a woman scorn” could not have any deeper meaning than to the shape-shifting female snake of Eastern legend.

More than 5,000 years after Nagin graced the jungles of Asia and 300-plus years since Congreve penned one of the most famous (mis)quotes of international literature, the Snake Goddess makes her presence felt in the modern-day city. When Nagin’s mate is snatched from the jungle by an American, she turns into human form and chases down the man (played by Jeff Doucette) who captured her true love, unleashing her fury on anyone who stands in her way. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

In setting a new trend of joint cinematic productions in Bollywood and Hollywood, Writer-Director Jennifer Lynch re-tells an ancient classic of Nagin in Hisss, which stars Bollywood buxom Mallika Sherawat and Indian legend Irfan Khan. Already a popular theme in Indian productions -– more than a dozen “Nagin” films have been produced in India between 1925 and 1990 –- Hisss sets out to separate itself from the rest with a sexy lead actress and beautiful Indian sets, combined with the budget of a Hollywood movie. Where most Indian-produced Nagin movies failed, due to poor make-up and even worse special effects, Lynch (along with Producer Govind Menon) set out to make Hisss one of the greatest horror movies of all time.

“I definitely want people to see this film and say it is the greatest horror movie made in the history of cinema –- better than Hitchcock, better than The Exorcist,” Menon told Buzzine in an exclusive interview.

It helps to have the likes of Khan and Sherawat as two of the lead actors in the film. The India-based Khan has already starred in popular Hollywood and British productions such as Slumdog Millionaire, A Mighty Heart and The Namesake. His female counterpart, Sherawat, is dubbed the “Marilyn Monroe of Bollywood” and was honored as one of the sexiest women alive by AskMen.com.

In playing the sultry and sexy yet venomous Snake Goddess, Sherawat did not have any lines in the movie, yet the hardest part was not keeping quiet during filming –- instead, it was trying to control her bodily fluids while wearing an imposing snake suit.

“It was pure torture (playing the snake),” the 32-year-old actress told Buzzine. “I was in a snake suit for 14 hours and I couldn’t pee! It was raining and it was cold and we had leeches all over. (The director) was like, ‘Mallika, come on, you’ve got to do this.’ I am in this snake suit and I haven’t gone to the loo for 14 hours, but we still had to do (filming). Jennifer [Chambers Lynch] would say to me, ‘Come on, it’s great, come on, woo! woo!’ But she gave me that strength to carry on, despite a lot of complaining (and) crying.”

Complaining and crying aside, Sherawat believes in her character, which really has not been on the big screen for Western audiences. “We were introducing Westerners to the Eastern legend of the Snake Goddess,” Sherawat proclaimed to Buzzine just moments after promoting Hisss to a panel audience at last weekend’s Fangoria Weekend of Horrors Convention in downtown Los Angeles. “The movie is based upon a very popular Eastern legend about a shape-changing snake who takes human form and comes to the modern world.”

Filmed in four different locations in India, including Chennai, Mumbai and a Kerala jungle, Hisss is truly an international film, combining the best of American cinema with Indian sets and an Indian cast. To some, it may be considered the Slumdog Millionaire of horror films.

“Everything is getting global now,” Menon said. “Most of Hollywood’s revenue is coming from outside of America. Indian cinema also has to think globally. It’s only natural. It’s inevitable. All of these movie industries have to work together. It makes projects economically feasible and you get a wider audience. I think it’s a trend that has started now, and it’s going to be huge.”

Sherawat put it in slightly different terms, including the entire Asian continent in describing the reach of the film’s subject matter. “It’s a very popular Eastern legend,” she proclaimed. “It’s not only India -– it’s China, it’s Hong Kong, it’s Far East… That’s very unique.”

For Menon, the reason Nagin has international cinematic appeal is because the legend of the film’s main character is cross-cultural in real life. Combining the multi-cultural nature of Nagin and the appeal of Asiatic and horror themes in Hisss, American audiences should, he believes, be open to the film despite its Indian sets. “The vampire has been around for 200 hundred years, but this character has been around for 5,000 years,” he said. “It crossed all of these different countries and cultures.”

While the multi-cultural aspect may be a draw for the moviegoer in Hollywood, just about everything in India appealed to Lynch when she was scouting film locations during pre-production. She told Buzzine everything about India’s natural beauty lent itself to produce the ideal movie.

“There wasn’t any non-draw to India,” Lynch emphatically said. “I love it there. You walk around every corner and there’s some new environment that evokes a thought or an idea or a story. It’s all just ready to go. You really can’t say that about any other place.”

With the Indian jungles ripe for a perfect setting of Hisss’s sets, Lynch added her upcoming horror flick is perfect for fans of everything fantastical, proclaiming moviegoers can go to places they never imagined. “I would love it if they felt as if they’ve been somewhere they haven’t been but have dreamt of or heard about. Hopefully they are offered a new thing to fear and fantasize about. Most importantly, they will see a really interesting love story that has gone on for thousands of years.”

In writing and directing Hisss, Lynch not only focused on the fantastical, but she also wanted to make a movie that left moviegoers breathless to an otherwise tired theme in Indian cinema. “My vision was to create a thrill ride but bewitching and haunting and seductive -– and funny,” she humbly and softly stated. “To me, if you can sort of make me giggle and then scare the shit out of me, you’ve won. Hopefully, there’s a little bit of humor that crosses Eastern and Western cultures.”

However, Sherawat did not sound so enthusiastic about her role. It was not about scaring the shit out of people or humor crossing cultural boundaries. While she did see her role as high on sex-appeal, she appeared a bit scarred by a few scenes.

“We had real snakes on set. It was weird and creepy,” Sherawat said with her eyes and cheekbones cringed as Menon, Lynch and Doucette chuckled along. “I definitely do not want to go the jungle again. I don’t want to wear a snake suit. I don’t want to make love to a snake. No mud, no cold, no leeches! That’s all I know right now!

“As it is, my parents have disowned me!” she jokingly added. “Now, when they see me making love to a snake…?! Oh my God! And it was a rubbery, slimy, slithering snake. And Jennifer would tell me, ‘Lick it harder!’ Yuck!”

All exaggeration aside, Sherawat took a deep breath and got back on point, putting aside her fun-filled, light-hearted rants in proclaiming she actually is thrilled to play such a vital role in the story of a classic, time-told legend.

“I’m happy to be a part of this. For a snake that doesn’t speak, my character in the movie is very sexy, it’s venomous and it can swallow whole. A story like this comes only once in a lifetime. It’s a popular legend you are part of.”