Friday, August 12, 2011
Phhir
Not Again!
Vikram Bhatt (like a part of Ram Gopal Varma’s factory) has seen some value in creating aseries of mid-budget horror films, that don’t require too much imagination, considering they follow more or less a set formula. Sometimes these films work—Bhatt’s 1920 and Haunted did.
Some efficient creation of background and mood, passable production and tech values and at the end of it is a film that could, for fans of the genre, deliver some chills. Predictability is part of the package.
Bhatt has produced Phhir, and Girish Dhamija has directed it with workmanlike approach. The actors are not big enough to draw an audience in, so that might actually go against the film because it is otherwise quite ordinary.
Set in the UK, Phhir is about a doctor, Kabir Malhotra (Rajneesh Duggal), whose wife Sia (Roshni Chopra) disappears and is later discovered to have been kidnapped. A clairvoyant, Disha (Adah Sharma), is called on to help trace the missing woman. She can ‘see’ the past and the future by looking at and touching objects and helps the police solve cases. Typically, reincarnation, karma and the supernatural are wrappedup in the suspense thriller. (The plot seems inspired by The Eyes of Laura Mars).
The locations are lovely and captured quite well by veteran Pravin Bhatt, and the eerie atmosphere is right, but nothing to make one jump in one’s seat. The film starts with a sadhu reprimanding a man called Vikramaditya for his sins; he commits suicide and is reborn as Kabir, so one can guess where the story is headed.
A film like 1920 with its pace and intrigue managed to cover up for the flaws of non actors like Rajneesh Duggal and Adah Sharma, but they can’t pull off a slackly written and unevenly paced Phhir. The other actors are adequate, but the music is weak. Most people will probably end up watching this one on TV.
Vikram Bhatt (like a part of Ram Gopal Varma’s factory) has seen some value in creating aseries of mid-budget horror films, that don’t require too much imagination, considering they follow more or less a set formula. Sometimes these films work—Bhatt’s 1920 and Haunted did.
Some efficient creation of background and mood, passable production and tech values and at the end of it is a film that could, for fans of the genre, deliver some chills. Predictability is part of the package.
Bhatt has produced Phhir, and Girish Dhamija has directed it with workmanlike approach. The actors are not big enough to draw an audience in, so that might actually go against the film because it is otherwise quite ordinary.
Set in the UK, Phhir is about a doctor, Kabir Malhotra (Rajneesh Duggal), whose wife Sia (Roshni Chopra) disappears and is later discovered to have been kidnapped. A clairvoyant, Disha (Adah Sharma), is called on to help trace the missing woman. She can ‘see’ the past and the future by looking at and touching objects and helps the police solve cases. Typically, reincarnation, karma and the supernatural are wrappedup in the suspense thriller. (The plot seems inspired by The Eyes of Laura Mars).
The locations are lovely and captured quite well by veteran Pravin Bhatt, and the eerie atmosphere is right, but nothing to make one jump in one’s seat. The film starts with a sadhu reprimanding a man called Vikramaditya for his sins; he commits suicide and is reborn as Kabir, so one can guess where the story is headed.
A film like 1920 with its pace and intrigue managed to cover up for the flaws of non actors like Rajneesh Duggal and Adah Sharma, but they can’t pull off a slackly written and unevenly paced Phhir. The other actors are adequate, but the music is weak. Most people will probably end up watching this one on TV.
Labels: Cinemaah
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