When I learnt that director Sherif Arafa would be working with comedian Mohamed Henedy a second time, I thought they would make another belly-laugh effort like Ful el-Seen el-Azeem (The Great Fava Beans of China) when Henedy plays a chef in a food competition in China.
But, the duo’s latest release El-Ins wel Nems (The Humans and the Mongoose) is a bit of a let-down.
Although the film is classified as ‘horror comedy’, there was no horror. As for the comedy, it seems it was cobble together in a hurry so many details were missed making an already loose plot positively limp.
The film tells the story Tahsin (Mohamed Henedy) who is in charge of the house of horror at an amusement park. He is in love with Narmin (Menna Shalaby), who is really a jinn from the el-Nems family. She only needs to become pregnant to keep her species alive. That’s a recipe for comedy?
Horror is not a new genre to Egypt — Safeer Gohanam (Ambassador to Hell, 1945) and El-Taweza (The Spell, 1987) to name two. But this latest offering with the mongoose seems like a send-up of El-Ins Wel Ginn (The Humans and Jinn).
Both films share a similar plot. In the original, Galal (Adel Emam) is in love with Fatima (Youssra) and tries to win her. This is no comedy as it tackles an issue deeply rooted in the minds of some Egyptians, especial country folk, who believe that a ‘jinn lover’ can ruin a woman.
On the other hand, Sherif Araf wants a box office hit that depends on laughs, even if the gags have little to do with the story.
So, Tahsin meets Narmin, who appears to be a beautiful lady, and it was love at first sight. Later, Narmin tells her mother (Sabrin) she cannot marry Tahsin, but mother insists because he is the chosen one and she must marry this ‘human’ to become pregnant as she is growing up (having reached the grand old age of 31 in real life) and the childbearing clock is ticking. But the dialogue is every bit like real life, except that mum is a worried jinn.
Narmin invites Tahsin to meet her family. The laughs come, but the funny lines could be omitted without affecting the plot.
A horror/comedy movie about jinn needs clever special effects. The mongoose looks like something cut out of a cartoon strip and moves like a robot.
Perhaps that is where the comedy is, not to mention the situations. The language of the funny bits is somewhat dubious in places. The minor characters are called Wati (inferior) and Safel (base), which have unpleasant connotations; this is time when little ears must be covered.
For Mohamed Henedy, this film should be a shot in the arm for his career, as he has been in the doldrums since Antar, the Fourth Grandson of Shaddad in 2017.
The film looks well on the way to covering its budget, and the critics have been kind. For my part, I’m not kind, just a bit disappointed. As the school report would say, ‘Could be better’.
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