Phoonk

I saw this movie and it seems completely absurd. Some concept taken from Hollywood movie exorcist, while main concept being a girl is under spell of black magic. And finally at the end of movie, Indian black magic women becomes some mutant from Hollywood movie X-men, throwing peoples in air by powers of her hand. This whole concept appears to be ridiculously crazy. To any horror movie fans, an advice, just completely avoid this movie.

Even in this modern age, renowned directors like this one makes movies that what we all consider superstitious and that only old and illiterate peoples in India believe. To make it worse, this movie gives justification in stupid way as to why we should believe in "Kaala Jadu" Black Magic. Although, I believe Black magic in scientific way, but this doesn't means all the rubbish beliefs among illiterates have some basis. In one shot the main actor is talking to a guy who cures peoples suffering from possession, He tell him "I don't believe in God" to which that guy gives a weird explanation as to why we should believe in black magic. He starts by telling him if he takes some medicine for headache,why does he believe in that headache pill.For this question our main actor has no answer. I was in complete disbelief while watching this as to how low this movie can go down further.

Its not so scary. A lot of hype was given to this movie because of the contest in which the participant had to view the movie alone in the theater. A strictly one time watch on a DVD.

I'm not going to go much into the story as it is simply about a non- believer being haunted by the supernatural and his family.

Performances are good. Background Score, Visuals, camera angles etc were supposed to play a major role in a movie which was made to scare the audience. However, all of these were strictly OK.

Some Facts Related to the Movie: There was even another contest where participants were supposed to submit their real life experience horror story. This was all on the Phoonk website www.phoonk.in which is now non-existent. However the sad thing about the second contest was that the winners were intimidated over the email but never announced on the website and were also officially never given the price money. I'm one of them.

All in all a one time watch movie which doesn't completely fail to impress as a horror movie.

Direction - 1 star 😊 ! Acting - 1 star 😊 ! Screenplay - 1 star 😊 ! Story - 0.5 star 😐 ! Horror - 0.5 star 😐 !

4 stars / 5 stars Verdict : Hit I liked movie

Direction - wonderful, hats off to RGV. Making us entertained with a good horror sound designed movie and good characters.

Acting - child actress played very well and also lead actor was good and black magic lady laughing is so horrible. While she cries in a car such a very horrible scene played by her.

Screenplay - screenplay is good. From starting to end movie will set you seat. Background music good. Crows and lemon with bones scene is good because after that you will be anxious to know what is going to be next in movie

Story - story was OK not too different. It's looks similar to bhoot (2000).

Horror - Not too horror. But not was bad also. It's OK. If a child actress killed to person to persons in building or school then I could give it full marks. But I have given half marks due to lack of horror scenes.

In an interview given to one of the reporters, Mr. Verma, the director of the movie "Phoonk" had warned that the film would scare the hell out of the audiences and said that it would give one sleepless nights.Now, let me put this straight, after I had watched phoonk, I can come to the absolute conclusion that Mr. Ram gopal verma is losing his way out there completely. The situation is not far when people will start ridiculing him at every launch or premiere of a movie of the horror genre.I mean, what is he doing?.Does he ever come to know what the audiences think about his horror films produced or directed by him and what the audiences actually want?.People go inside the hall and literally make fun of the characters and the movie.What chill and what thrill is he talking about? His thoughts and assumptions are going in the wrong direction.he expects us to be afraid..well we are not but instead embarrassed.

Talking about phoonk, the movie was a poor one.The storyline had nothing special and exciting.The usage of background music was pathetic according to the film sequences. The film had the typical Ram Gopal Verma elements of the typical ghostly faces and sounds and also the boring creepy atmosphere that was created. The movie had the same lame and boring atmospheric elements as that of Vaastu Shastra, Bhoot, Darna Zaroori Hai and Raat. Audiences can just whistle and tease and take the interest away during the movie.The cinematography with the camera-work was awful and disgusting.RGv wants to scare us but he needs to find new ways.Gone are the days of Raat and other ghost films like Dayyam in which he had some success.He really needs to look up to some Hollywood or Japanese movies and get some inspiration from them if he can't deliver it on his own and there is nothing wrong in it.Every good director gets inspired by Hollywood films and does copy the style because in the end what matters is the audience entertainment. If not watch Hollywood movies then read some good books or Ghost stories by some very famous authors and make a movie on that but not this. The performances given by the actors couldn't really help the story and the direction and instead made things worse. There comes a time when one begins to feel embarrassed after spending even only 30 bucks for the show after the taunts in the hall.The child artists cannot be blamed as direction was poor. The story didn't have much to really set a chilling effect.Faces made along with sounds were just boring.Mr Verma ..wake up...Do make Horror movies.. We need them but change the style. The horror genre of films are soon starting to disappear from the Indian Film Industry.We need quality stuff and if movies like phoonk and vaastu are made time and time again then we can all really stop going to movie theaters.

Its a proved fact now that there is only one person in Indian Cinema who can give you much better "Horror movies" than the "Ramsay" kind of cinema made some decades back. Gone are the days when "Horror" meant just Ugly Faces & some Skin show incorporated deliberately. At present viewers are more interested in seeing genuine Horror movies based on original themes. Here RGV comes back with a topic he is best at other than his underworld plot.

More than 15 years ago, when I saw "Raat", I felt relieved that at least one person is there in Bollywood who knows his work and also understands the "Horror" genre. But then RGV took long time to make his second in the series, "Bhoot". And now he is back with same kind of sparks in "Phoonk". Though "Phoonk" is quite repetitive in treatment but it works due to its novel subject of "Black Magic" and brilliant performances from a new lead pair.

The movie has its moments to enjoy, but you may also feel less supplied to you in respect to info about the subject. The explanatory factor is missing in the script and it only stresses at showing the results of the Magic Spell on the victim. The climax where in a "Learned Person" comes to rescue the family is same as you have seen earlier in "Raat" & "Bhoot".

In "Raat" there was Om Puri, Rekha played the role in "Bhoot" and there is "Zakhir Hussain" in "Phoonk" giving the top most performance of his career. He plays the role of a crippled Tantrik and he has acted superbly. Not once the viewer can think that he is acting as he looks so real in his get up and act. Thats the reason he is seen in almost all RGV films and its time others in the industry also use this talented artist more often.

The lead pair, Sudeep & Amruta Khanvilkar both impress with their top rate performances. Sudeep is surely a great discovery. He has some resemblance to Javed Jaffery but has acted like an experienced performer. Baby Ahsaas Channa makes an impact as the main sufferer. Ashwini Kalsekar as the culprit manages to give you shocks but also crosses the border in certain scenes. The actress playing Sudeep's mother gives the required mystic touch to the movie. The project is a collective & commendable effort by the whole team.

One observation, I would sadly like to mention here. I think Indian Audiences come to see "Horror Movies" in the theater not to enjoy the theme and subject, but only to scream and shout intentionally. Moreover during the whole movie you can hear laughters and giggles in the cinema. May be this is another way of enjoying a "Horror Flick", but certainly not as it should be. I hope the subject of Horror needs a silent and intense watch and I fear "Horror" is not taken as another form of "Comedy" by our dear viewers.

Though you may feel similarities with RGVs earlier flicks at times but still the movie is worth a watch if you love this genre of cinema.