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Rajiv is
working on building a new building together
with his two contractors. It's all going according
to the plans until Rajiv finds out that his contractors
are frauds. The contracting couple is immediately
fired and understandably upset so they decide to
cast a spell on Rajiv's daughter so that an evil
spirit will take over her body.
Ram Gopal Varma is one of the most popular directors
in India at the moment - especially in the horror
industry. He's brought us such horror flicks as
"Bhoot", "Darna Zaroori Hai", "Darling" and also
produced the horror hit "Vaastu Shastra". Now I've
only seen one of these till the very end, the rest
of them really didn't interest me that much even
though I watched 30-40 minutes of each of them and
RGV only directed one of the short stories in Darna
Zaroori Hai so I decided to finally give him a chance.
Well I wish I hadn't. Phoonk is a perfect example
of what would get any American film student a big F.
No, this isn't even a D- like most reviews on IMDb
suggest, it's a complete and utter failure of a
horror film.
The messy plot revolves around a big family, in fact
it's so big that all the characters are only
introduced very vaguely and aren't given any depth
throughout the entire film. Anyway Rajiv works as
a... ehmmm... I want to say architect but I'm not
sure. Either way, it has to do with constructions,
and his psychotic contractors (why would anyone
hire these guys, the woman is obviously mental)
turn out to be frauds so he fires them. Well they
decide to get revenge on Rajiv so they use black
magic on his daughter and before we know it we're
given yet another Bollywood take on The Exorcist.
The worst thing is, it's 2 hours long! I can't
believe I managed to stay awake during the whole
thing. What boggles my mind even more is how RGV
can be so big in India, this is absolute shit
(pardon my language but it is).
Subtlety is not a factor in Phoonk where we clearly
understand who the bad guys are going to be right
away - either with the help of scary music or
by the fact that all bad guys have psychotic eyes
and stare at everyone and laugh at the most
inappropriate of times. In other words, our
intelligence is gravely insulted. Oh but here's
a question for you, if Bollywood is so big and
Bollywood productions are making so much money,
how come this movie looks like it was made in the
early 80's? The quality is beyond poor and the
directing doesn't exactly help either. The movie
does deserve some credit though as I laughed until
I got teary-eyed in the climax, it was so over-the-top
and cheesy that I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I've
seen my fair share of cheesy endings but I've never
EVER seen a climax as ridiculous as the one in Phoonk.
If you're looking for a creepy movie, look elsewhere,
Phoonk is an amateurish, incompetent and down-right
pathetic production that doesn't deserve the film
that it was shot on. I can not believe crap like
this is released in cinemas in India. Seriously,
how can anyone enjoy this campy nonsense? If you
want a modern take on The Exorcist, go rent The
Exorcism Of Emily Rose instead.
No.
Over-the-top and overpowering. Awful soundtrack.
Pathetic attempt at creating a modern-day version
of The Exorcist. I don't understand why it's so
difficult to find a good Indian horror flick, they
should be able to pull it off shouldn't they?
Well, better luck next time I guess.
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