Filmi Review

With Phoonk Ram Gopal Varma has promised to scare the hell out of the viewer. The buzz around Phoonk was mainly due to the 5 lakh prize money awarded to the individual who succeeds in watching the movie completely, alone in the theatre. The movie also has a superstar from the Kannada Film Industry, Sudeep.

"Phoonk" is the story of a confirmed atheist whose belief systems are shaken up when his loved ones are subjected to unspeakable horrors by forces whose very existence his rational mind refuses to accept. It is also the story of a fanatical devotee who is forced to turn her back on God in the face of traumatic experiences.

"Phoonk" is also a very scary film, but the fear element is not just on the surface level like for instance in a film like "Bhoot". Here it seeps into you and plagues your entire belief system thereby making you highly vulnerable and will also put you into an emotional state wherein you would start fearing the most inane objects which you would normally take for granted in the daily course of life.

I have always believed the post-intermission portion of a movie is most important, as it makes the last impact on the viewer. An average - above average first half followed by a great second can carry a movie through. Phoonk just falls short in both. The first half is poor. Forget about scaring you it's at times funny. Quite a few people in the crowd were actually making fun of a few scenes, mainly because a few unnecessary scenes in the first half are irritating. The second half is strong, very engaging but falls short of being perfect. 3 - 4 scenes make a strong impact, climax is a letdown.

The camera angles in Ram Gopal Varma movies are really getting annoying now. Also how does the director expect to build fear in a viewer by capturing shots of toys? It's anything but scary. The background music irritates at times.

The performances, apart from Ashwini Kalsekar are decent. Sudeep a veteran actor from down south does well. Ahsaas is fantastic. Zakir Hussain hams in a few scenes. Amruta Khanvilkar is good.

On the whole, the only horror release of the year disappoints. The poor direction in the first half lets the movie down. At the box-office, the movie should recover its investments given its low budget and the curiosity the movie has managed to create.

Movie: Phoonk; Cast: Sudeep, Amruta Khanvilkar, Ahsaas Channa, Kenny Desai, Ashwini Kalsekar and Ganesh Yadav;
Director: Ram Gopal Varma;



Phook reminded me of a hilarious episode of decade old Jaspal Bhatti’s comedy show Ulta Pulta, aired on our National channel, where the comedian tries to make a thriller and is surprised to win an award for Best Comedy Film for the same flick. At least you can say this for the first half of Phook where instead of getting scared one would laugh his/her heart out. After seeing the promotions of Rs. 5 lacs prize money for the person watching this flick alone, this wasn’t been expected from a proven director like Ram Gopal Varma.

The story of the movie revolves around Rajeev, a successful Construction Engineer with loving wife, and two children aged 10 and 8. Rajeev is an atheist to the core. He scoffs at God and even more at people who believed in the dark forces till one day when an evil is let loose in his happy home threatening to destroy his family and shake up the very foundations of his convictions and belief systems.

The movie starts with some funny camera angles and annoying music and that keeps repeating in the whole first half. Unnecessary sound effects and weird close up shots are simply unnecessary. Known to create an unexpected shock for the viewers by use of his creative camera angles, Ramu has failed to live up to his expectations this time around. In a desperate attempt to create horror, RGV has added some unnecessary horrific scenes in the movie.

But the same couldn’t be said for the second half of the film which seems to be pretty impressive, leaving few things aside. It surely makes people quietly sit at the edge of their seats. The scenes are so powerful that no one in the audience dared to utter a single word.

On the acting front, the little kid Ahsaas Channa is pretty impressive. She is really brilliant in the 2nd half. The others have also given a good performance leaving apart Ashwini Kalsekar, who is really irritating in the first half. Her laughter is more like someone screaming loudly in your ears and trying to kill you with that.

Background music is surprisingly good while the camera work would really have been much better. After all it plays a very important role in the making of a horror flick. I really wish first half was as good as second one. It looked like first half was directed by some sub standard director while the second half was handled by RGV himself. With many young and talented directors making their debut in Bollywood, Ramu really needs to deliver some good stuff soon, if we want to enhance his career in Bollywood.

To sum it up; the movie was not so bad not so good, but it could have been made really well if they had taken care of the first half. I mean, if you can’t add fear in the mind of people then at least don’t make them laugh, it’s supposed to be a horror movie.

Cast: Sudeep, Ahsaas Chanana, Crow, Dog, Cat, Owl, Nimboos, Bones
Direction: Ram Gopal Varma



Owl scowls. Meow, a cutie pie black cat sits by a roadside. A maid-servant’s eyes become rounder than water melons. Granny nods, nods, nods (in different degrees). Smiley ball smiles (naturally). Chauffeur guzzles booze and looks through a window like Ranjeet the Rasputin would in the 1960s. And dear child Ahsaas suddenly decamps to gape at a crow which doesn’t even caw in a tribute to the silent movies. Perhaps.

That’s Ram Gopal Varma’s Phoonk which is essentially about Baby Ahsaas developing a male voice like Sonu Nigaam’s and behaving like Linda Blair from The Exorcist. Chill, guys, she doesn’t barf out dehydrated pea-soup like Blair did. Our Linda just lies in a bed, driving her parents (Sudeep-Amruta Khanvilkar) crazy-hazy. That means Lilette Dubey, like Victor Bannerjee in Bhoot, fetches up as a psychologist to say something about “psycho dissassociative disorder.” So much medical research, it’s touching.

Don’t be taken in by Psycholette though. It’s actually voodoo being practised by a portly nerd and his cackle-cackle wife. Enter an Exorcist, with eyes hitting the ceiling, who does a number on Linda, Ahsaas, whoever. And lo, you want to rush out and gape at a crow. Real-life ones even caw caw.

Standard Ram Gopal Varma horror dish, this. Better spend the ticket money on gaping at fried fish. Or better still, even eat it with a phoonk and knife.