Phoonk

‘Phoonk’ could just as well have been called ‘Ram Gopal Verma Ki Exorcist’: a little girl thrashes about in her bed, spews out guttural male voices, and turns on her loving family. But like all RGV’s bad copies, this one too gets derailed by familiar sights and sounds. And too little fear: what’s the point of a horror film which makes its audience laugh?

It’s not just the Hollywood classic that’s been cannibalised. ‘Phoonk’ also borrows scenes from his own excellent ‘Bhoot’ ( the last genuinely scary, classy film from Ramu’s stable), and that clunker ‘Vaastushastra’ — it has very much the same sort of sprawling house, and family, and a little boy who sees things.

It could also have been called ‘Nimbu Mirch Ki Kahaani’, given that those things star so heavily in so many scenes: in the courtyard of the house, on the road, in the living room. The about-to-be-possessed girl (Ahsaas) stares cunningly at a raven. The grandma beats her chest and says it’s all ‘kaala jaadu’ (this is a Hindi movie, so no one says ‘black magic’). The mother (Amruta Khalvilkar ) just beats her chest. And the father (Sudeep) turns into a believer from an atheist, in order to save his beloved daughter: he didn’t allow a temple to be constructed on his site, so this is retribution, see? But the end comes only after we’ve been regaled by the sight of a hysterical woman (Ashwini Kalsekar) sticking pins into a rag doll, and a shambling, half-blind tantrik sniffing the devil out. When, oh when, will the old Ramu return?