Phoonk (2008)

There seems to be only two genres which are penchant to RGV, underworld and horror. He redeems himself with an "underworld" outing for every mistake he commits in an "horror".§ Sudeep:: The new protégé'. Quite promising – bears shades of Manoj Bajpai.§ Amruta Khanvilkar:: From Zee Cinestars Ki Khoj to RGV camp, she has come a long way.§ Ashish Channa:: The kids are watching too much horror programs and it clearly shows.§ Ashwini Kalsekar:: Scary portrayal but at times over the top (and a bit amusing in few scenes!). Same for the actor who played her husband.§ The lady who played the Mother's part was quite natural .§ Lillette Dubey & KK Raina:: Characterization was a bit skewed, inadequately fleshed out.§ Zakir Hussain:: The star performer and carries his role quite effectively.Background score is not too loud – thankfully.The movie bears RGV stamp all over… and the weird camera angles come as a part of the package.Raat, Bhoot, Darling, Vaastushastra & the Darna series - reminds me of the story of the spider who refuses to give up. RGV is enamoured by Alfred Hitchcock/ Stanley Kubrick who merely used narration and background score as tools to play with the minds of the audience and create a horror sans blood and gore . Phoonk is yet another attempt to set a similar benchmark on the home ground.What are you waiting for? Bring on Shabri too..... we have the gut to digest that as well.

The movie is reasonably good in Indian standards, with a few of blushes, which Shri RGV, as he is known and portrayed, was expected to be eradicated.For an atheist hero, not to believe in supernatural forces even when his daughter defied gravity is beyond pardon, a blush on sensibility.The fate of the ghost buster Zakir Hussain at the end of the movie is equally left unanswered and thus obnoxious.The central characters blended well with the movie but the maid was expected to react better and so was the driver who was famous before as young Amitabh Bachchan, the Indian icon, in Agnipath shouting "maine jaala diya" (i burned it all), as did Seema Biswas in RGV's Bhooth. The Witch and the Witchdoctor were the best of the lot and they played the role of their lifetime. The spookiness was mostly in aggravated background score, which hummed more than it really scared.Considering its a RGV production, I rated it 6, as he was expected to fare better.I went for a Sarkar and came back with something in between Aag and Darna Maana Hai.Sorry RGV, you ought to be more careful next time in hiring right people for editing notes, before heading for it.

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.

I think Ramu has lost his charm now. I don't remember when he delivered his last good film. After SarkarRaj and Contract , I was under the impression that he will learn from his mistakes but this film disappointed me badly.The film is based on Black magic unlike Bhoot which revolved around spirit possessing main protagonist's body. Turn offs: 1) Weired Camera angles 2) Overacting by some of the actors (specially Aswin Kalsker and Zakir Hussien) 3) No concrete storyline 4) poor background scoreAll in all , The film fails in creating the atmosphere required for such a genre.However there are some good acting also by main protagonist(Sudeep). One question is still bothering me about the movie. What was the role of that Crow which is shown in movie from time to time?