After the action and drama of the movie Contract, Ram Gopal Varma is all set to amuse the viewers with its upcoming movie, Phoonk. As the name might suggest, it is a horror film, which claims to grip the audience.
In day light we feel we can see everything but the mysterious world is the darkness in which nobody knows what exists. We supercilious humans think we know all, though we are not sure of what we know. The world has so much and we haven’t reached to all its parts, how can we claim that something doesn’t exist on this earth.
The film “Phoonk” shows unpredictable mysteries and the horror related to something that human doesn’t know. A non-believer can assume that the happening has no scientific explanation but many times things ca not be explained scientifically.
The film is claimed to be quite scary, surpassing the fear of Ram Gopal Verma’s previous horror flick, ‘Bhoot’. The fear factor featured in ‘Phoonk’ is said to seep into the system of the viewer rather than just affecting him visually on the surface level. The horror element in the film is said to have been blended quite well with the emotional component, making the viewer relate to the situations and characters of the film.
The film begins as a simple story of Rajiv (Sudeep – an established actor from down South) who is in the construction business in Mumbai. A profit minded business man and a core atheist, showcases through an incident when his construction work is stalled upon finding a stone shaped Ganesha and he refuses to oblige to build a temple over it at request of his own workers.
On a contrary his wife, Arati (Amruta Khanvilkar) is a traditional house wife and is a staunch believer of God and his unseen holy powers; their loving daughter Raksha (Ehsaas) & younger son Rohan and his mother Amma make up to be a small happy family. The characters are established well in the films first opening reels itself and give a glimpse of how Rajiv perceives his family above anything else in life, with much love and affection towards his daughter Raksha. He does not believe in the way his mother wants to educate his kids by telling stories of mythological characters and presence of evil to make one believe in God and his mythical powers.
As the film moves forward we are further introduced to Vinay Dev (Ganesh Yadav), Rajiv’s lawyer-cum-legal advisor and a close friend; followed by a husband-wife duo of Anshuman (Kenny Desai) and Madhu (Ashwini Kalsekar) who are Rajiv’s close and trusted associates at his company. Need to mention that Madhu is quite a horror to watch her laugh at before the film begins to scare one!
Soon enough Rajiv bags a huge contract to construct a mini-city project and throws a grand party at his house to celebrate the big achievement.
Few days later, his maid notices a few nail-pierced lemons and sprinkled vermillion with bones stewed in his compound. Since everyone is scared of the sudden appearance of such unholy substances, Rajiv himself takes up the task to hurl the ingredients (believed to be items used for black magic) outside his compound and reprimands everyone for believing in such illogical and irrational things as black magic etc.
But this is only the beginning to a tale of events that take a strange turn- starting with death of a guy who was to join Rajiv as Anshuman’s replacement at work in a construction site mishap; his daughter Raksha has intermittent bouts of change in behaviour while appears for her examination at school. A panic call for Rajiv makes him rush to doctors for his daughter’s condition. However Dr. Pandey (KK Raina) brushes off the claims of any danger only as Raksha’s excuse to coverup for not being prepared for her exams and nothing else.
But Amma here believes her grand-daughter is possessed by an evil spirit and has no medical or psychotic complication and looks for divine help.
The film keeps you nailed onto your seat with instances of thrills how members of the family face experience of something unusual happenings along with them, and how insecure they feel about in their own house.
So the performances led by Sudeep are top notch, the little girl Raksha deserves special kudos for such subtle and imaginative portrayel of a girl plagued by black magic. She shines out as an effective young actor in her part of being a kid possessed with evil forces with an enthralling debut into Hindi films by Sudeep. Though the characterizations seem sketchy but good enough to drive this sleek, simple but powerful film.
Amruta comes out well as a worrying mother and rest of the cast commends to the film.
Technically one of the best films of this year, Phoonk is full of long complicated camerawork instead of dead close ups. There are silences and spaced out scenes long enough to let you munch your popcorn. A powerful emotional drama with correct doses of thrill, Phoonk more than a horror film emerges as an emotional film.
A one time watch for everybody who feels they are brave enough to watch a horror genre film and those who don’t as well because the horror element is not enough to give one a sleepless night. One needs to see through the message that the film portrays in its end and the process how things are through the so-called Primitive happenings still exist in today’s modern world.
An absolute multiplex film on the subject of Black Magic, coming from a well established director. A film with a message to all is the surprise element than being dubbed as the scariest film of our times either Exorcist or our desi- Bhoot.
Watch it out without any prejudice and enjoy the scare. And since it’s the only film of the horror genre for this year it’s the much needed spice apart from the Comedies and Masala films released this year long.