Desperately Delirious

That is exactly how director RGV’s state of mind would have been, when he must have embarked upon this self proclaimed saga on voodoo, Phoonk which as it turns out almost every time in today’s scenario is nothing but a mere marketing brouhaha.

Set in an unpleasantly eerie house, which has some weird looking props all over (which typically parents with young kids would get rid of, but the couple here couldn’t care less) this is the tale of a non-believer. By virtue of being the sole bread earner of the family, he commands the relevant respect in the house, and everyone just bows down to the master’s ‘belief’, albeit reluctantly. He suffers a professional mess, and as destiny would have it, his rivals cast a spell on his kid, and how in the process of setting her free, he becomes a believer (sadly even his God comes out of thin air, just like the plot of the film) is what the story of the film is.

Unlike Bhoot, where RGV brought out the supernatural into the urban setup, where a layman in urban India could relate to it, here he goes the Ramsay way. Thankfully, he doesn’t (and hopefully couldn’t) go that bad, which is why one can sit in a multiplex and at least watch the flick. But for Christ’s sake(oops the mention of that word is blasphemous in this context), this is a house with kids, and in no way does the art director make an effort to make it look like one. Why in the name of God does the house have these wicked looking animals, a grim painting, depicting more somber hues to the already dim house, and why, why, why does it not have sufficient lighting? My problem with the film is that just to evoke the scary emotions in the audiences the entire setup is made out to be too ‘ghost-friendly’.

Also, when the camera tries out desperately to drive shivers down your spine, you wonder whether this is the same RGV, who managed to catch you off guard, every single time in Bhoot. What annoyed me the most is that he tried too hard to repeat the magic in every single frame of this film as well, but after all that, and after enduring the torturous traumatic ride called Phoonk, one still knows that all these were mere attempts!

On the positive side, the movie did enlighten me on the modus operandi of ‘black-magic’, it showed me how a lemon can be used, and what significance do the bone and the skull have and some more such stuff. And since I honestly didn’t care about all these, it was good (?) value addition! Also, Ashwini Kalsekar puts in a good performance, then be it as the wicked witch or the wounded tigress, she is highly competent, and given her previous track record, one can definitely say that she is versatile.

On the whole, Phoonk is a drab drama with dreary moments, which perhaps should be endured once, to get to know the psyche of someone who is desperate to get delirious and try and evoke the same emotion in his audiences, but fails miserably!