Classics and Duds notwithstanding, Ram Gopal Varma’s movies always have an air of expectance…  

Classics and Duds notwithstanding, Ram Gopal Varma’s movies always have an air of expectance around them and the latest movie to bear the weight of expectations is the ‘Black Magic Story’ - Phoonk. RGV has the knack of following a good movie with a dud: Daud after Rangeela, Kaun after Satya, Naach after Bhoot, Aag after Sarkar and Contract after Sarkar Raj. Going by that Ram Gopal Varma ki series, Phoonk ought to be a good movie……and is it? Well, IMHO, Phoonk delivers, but in parts. Some of the sequences bear the RGV stamp all-over them; they’re broody, not-too-dark-not-too-lit, enthralling the audience and holding them in rapt attention. And some other scenes are lackadaisical and mundane. Black Magic, as a premise has rarely been used in Bollywood and that adds a novelty factor to this movie.<BR><BR> Phoonk is the story of Sudeep - an engineer who is an atheist and rubbishes the notion of divine or evil forces - and his family, wherein his wife and mother are believers and he lets them be, without letting himself be dragged into the rigmarole. He dotes on his children - a son and daughter and it is the daughter who is apple of his eye. As a consequence of a work-related-feud, evil suddenly descends into his midst, affecting his beloved daughter. The very supernatural forces which he used to rubbish and ridicule, now wreak havoc in his life.<BR><BR> Touted as a very scary movie (backed by an audacious dare-to-watch-it-alone gimmickry!) and one that would shake the very foundations of our beliefs, Phoonk turns out to be neither! Audience were laughing away at some of the scenes and the climax only goes towards strengthening our beliefs….it is too fantastic to be believed! Truth be told: I’m an atheist myself and though its hard to say if what happened in the movie were to happen with me in real life would have turned me into a believer, the goings-on certainly didn’t even tickle my belief system. The basic premise of the movie is Black Magic and therein lies a technical goof-up that Ramu has committed! There is a subtle yet marked difference between Black Magic and Possession yet the movie portrays both as if they’re one and the same. I’m no expert on the subject but I think pushing pins into a wax doll would make the victim feel the same pain rather than possessing them. And that’s just one of the minus-point of the movie!<BR><BR> Performance-wise, the child artiste Ahsaas Channa is brilliant as the victim (her traumatized performance second only to Urmila’s in Bhoot!). Sudeep is good as the shaken-belief atheist, though his amma intonations giveaway his southern origins. Ashwini Kalsekar’s role would have been better if she’d been subtle (Johnny Gaddar comes to mind) but spoils it by being over-the-top and very very shriek-y! K.K.Raina and Lilette Dubey’s characters are lifted straight out of Bhoot (Victor Banerjee’s, split into two). Zakir Hussain is too wierd but I guess that brings out the believability! As in most of Ramu’s movies, background score and camera-movements rule the roost and make a mediocre movie, seem better. The repeated close-ups of Crows and Cats and Trees is irritating though (Vaastu Shaastra hangover, methinks). All in all, a would-have-been-better movie from RGV that’s not as good as Bhoot but not half as bad either! The Black Magic angle and the child artiste’s performance ought to ensure it has a decent run at the box office. 

Five minutes into Phoonk you wonder why it isn’t called Ram Gopal Varma Ki Phoonk. Every scene,…  

Five minutes into Phoonk you wonder why it isn’t called Ram Gopal Varma Ki Phoonk. Every scene, every dialogue and every character in Phoonk is something that you have seen many times over in many other RGV films. The jumping-out-of-your-skin background score of Bhoot, the ominous feeling of an unseen terror of Raat and even the central character of a child plagued by evil forces in Vaastu Shastra, Phoonk evokes a strong sense of deja vu. Which may well have been fine but for the fact that nostalgia isn’t always a good thing. Phoonk may well be a tribute to earlier RGV films — even a bits-and-pieces remake of some — but it has nothing of its own to offer.<BR><BR> With black magic as its central theme, Phoonk traces the trials and tribulations of a family whose young daughter falls prey to the evils of witchcraft and jadootona. With the wafer-thin plot not having the steam to even trudge through the first few reels, the director relies on everything else to drag us through the rest of the film. Crows, owls, black cats, strange characters that seem to pop out from nowhere, ordinary household objects becoming sinister vehicles of terror, camera jumpstarts, the play of light and shade... too much of Phoonk goes into building a sense of foreboding.<BR><BR> But at no point of time does Phoonk make you jump up in your seat or shut your eyes in fright. And for a film that touts itself to be the scariest ever (at least in Bollywood), this definitely isn’t good news.<BR><BR> Besides Raat and Bhoot, Phoonk also revisits some other horror films, but needless to say never quite manages to recreate their brilliance. So the spirit-possession scene which gave one goosebumps in The Exorcist (“It is the scariest film I have seen,” RGV has confessed) is at best a two-minute dangle in the air in Phoonk, and the toy that wreaked so much havoc in Child’s Play is but a silent spectator in the RGV scheme of things.<BR><BR> The largely unspectacular performances make Phoonk an even more ordinary film. Kannada star Sudeep contorts his face in every possible way, but remains as wooden as ever. <BR><BR> Child actor Ahsaas Channa is too adult in expression and too studied in her performance to evoke any kind of sympathy from the audience. And small screen vamp Ashwini Kalsekar’s loud act is even worse than Nisha Kothari’s in Aag. Reach out for your ear plugs to combat Amar Mohile’s music score.<BR><BR> Ram Gopal Varma had promised a briefcase full of cash to the viewer brave enough to sit through Phoonk in an empty hall. Can we at least get a briefcase for suffering yet another RGV horror show? 

Movie is not scary but movie direction is top notch..Really holds you till the end...Great job…  

Movie is not scary but movie direction is top notch..Really holds you till the end...Great job ramu...Worth for money...Thank you for quality movies... 

Rajeev (Sudeep) is a young and successful construction engineer with ambitious plans. He is an…  

Rajeev (Sudeep) is a young and successful construction engineer with ambitious plans. He is an atheist. He has a religious wife and two kids. He fires a woman called Madhu (Aswini Kalsekar) and her husband for indulging in fraud. In turn she uses black magic on the little daughter of Rajeev. The rest of the story is all about how an atheist like Sudeep believes in Black magic and saves his daughter.<BR><BR> Sudeep is very good as an atheist. Amrutha Khanvilkar is pretty as housewife. Aswini Kalsekar is excellent as the eccentric black magic woman. Ahsaas Channa steals the show as the girl who is possessed. Zakir Hussain is superb with a scary get-up as the blind black magic specialist.<BR><BR> Story of the film does deal with black magic. By balancing the story between the scientific aspect and supernatural aspect of the black magic, the director could sustain the interest among the audiences. Ram Gopal Varma never ventured out of way to create scariness by doing unnecessary scenes except for a couple of dream sequences (hero and the maid). The screenplay of the film is interesting. Direction of the film is good. And the characterizations are good.<BR><BR> Ram Gopal Varma extracted the best out of his technicians. Background music is very good. Cinematography is excellent. I liked the slow camera movements and the positioning of camera in most of the scenes. Dialogues are good. Art work is fine. He made sure that the soft toys chosen for the kids are weird so that it would help in creating scary ambiance. Most of the film is shot in two locations (house and construction site).<BR><BR> In the beginning of his career, Ram Gopal Varma used to make horror thrillers just for the sake of scaring the audiences. He used to concentrate more on fear factor than the emotional quotient. But contrary to his earlier horror films, Ram Gopal Varma narrated this film more sensibly by not depending on unnecessary scenes in order the scare the people. Hence he mixed the thrill elements into the emotional aspect. Those people who expect lot of scariness in the film would find it little disappointing. The plus points of the film are technical aspects and sensible story telling. The negative point is the slow-paced narration. On a whole, Ram Gopal Varma's Phoonk is worth a watch if you like films of this genre. 

Ramu gives us the feeling it’s a horror genre story not only when the Titles creep up with a…  

Ramu gives us the feeling it’s a horror genre story not only when the Titles creep up with a PHOONK but more with its spine chilling background score and intruding camera placements give the impression of what the Director wants to create on his viewers mind, and certainly this time round Ramu and his new DOP have played with the camera angles than restrict actors into tight close-up shots.<BR><BR> The film begins as a simple story of Rajiv (Sudeep – an established Kannada actor from down South) who is in the construction business in Mumbai. A profit minded business man and a core atheist, showcases through an incident when his construction work is stalled upon finding a stone shaped Ganesha and he refuses to oblige to build a temple over it at request of his own workers.<BR><BR> On a contrary his wife, Arati (Amruta Khanvilkar) is a traditional house wife and is a staunch believer of God and his unseen holy powers; their loving daughter Raksha (Ehsaas) & younger son Rohan and his mother Amma make up to be a small happy family. The characters are established well in the films first opening reels itself and give a glimpse of how Rajiv perceives his family above anything else in life, with much love and affection towards his daughter Raksha. He does not believe in the way his mother wants to educate his kids by telling stories of mythological characters and presence of evil to make one believe in God and his mythical powers.<BR><BR> As the film moves forward we are further introduced to Vinay Dev (Ganesh Yadav), Rajiv’s lawyer-cum-legal advisor and a close friend; followed by a husband-wife duo of Anshuman (Kenny Desai) and Madhu (Ashwini Kalsekar) who are Rajiv’s close and trusted associates at his company. Need to mention that Madhu is quite a horror to watch her laugh at before the film begins to scare one!<BR><BR> Soon enough Rajiv bags a huge contract to construct a mini-city project and throws a grand party at his house to celebrate the big achievement.<BR><BR> Few days later, his maid notices a few nail-pierced lemons and sprinkled vermillion with bones stewed in his compound. Since everyone is scared of the sudden appearance of such unholy substances, Rajiv himself takes up the task to hurl the ingredients (believed to be items used for black magic) outside his compound and reprimands everyone for believing in such illogical and irrational things as black magic etc.<BR><BR> But this is only the beginning to a tale of events that take a strange turn- starting with death of a guy who was to join Rajiv as Anshuman’s replacement at work in a construction site mishap; his daughter Raksha has intermittent bouts of change in behaviour while appears for her examination at school. A panic call for Rajiv makes him rush to doctors for his daughter’s condition. However Dr. Pandey (KK Raina) brushes off the claims of any danger only as Raksha’s excuse to coverup for not being prepared for her exams and nothing else.<BR><BR> But Amma here believes her grand-daughter is possessed by an evil spirit and has no medical or psychotic complication and looks for divine help.<BR><BR> The film keeps you nailed onto your seat with instances of thrills how members of the family face experience of something unusual happenings along with them, and how insecure they feel about in their own house.<BR><BR> As the story reaches a culmination point, the sequences which happen turns Rajiv into a believer of the supernatural while Arati turns her back on God and believes Science alone cured her daughter.<BR><BR> Over all the film ends with the audience thinking and wanting to know more of what follows through.<BR><BR> However, performance-wise Raksha (Ehsaas) shines out as an effective young actor in her part of being a kid possessed with evil forces with an enthralling debut into Hindi films by Sudeep. Amruta comes out well as a worrying mother and rest of the cast commends to the film.<BR><BR> A one time watch for everybody who feels they are brave enough to watch a horror genre film and those who don’t as well because the horror element is not enough to give one a sleepless night. One needs to see through the message that the film portrays in its end and the process how things are through the so-called Primitive happenings still exist in today’s modern world.<BR><BR> Technically the film is excellent for the first time DOP Savita Singh, who is at the helm of giving the visual scares and has played with the camera angles throughout the film, barring the few visual effects given at the end of the film make the ending dramatic.<BR><BR> An absolute multiplex film and would do well in interiors as well considering the subject of Black Magic and coming from a well established director.<BR><BR> A film with a message to all is the surprise element than being dubbed as the scariest film of our times either Exorcist or our desi- Bhoot.<BR><BR> Watch it out without any prejudice and enjoy the scare. And since it’s the only film of the horror genre for this year it’s the much needed spice apart from the Comedies and Masala films released this year long. 

phoonk is till now ramu's best movie .ramu you rock sir.  

phoonk is till now ramu's best movie .ramu you rock sir. 

SO what do u expect after RGV ki Aag ,darling ,shiva,naach,contract ,"GO",... Just bcoz of bhoot ,i…  

SO what do u expect after RGV ki Aag ,darling ,shiva,naach,contract ,"GO",... Just bcoz of bhoot ,i went to see Phoonk ,i would say it was nt that scary ,but the way it was presented was just out of imagination.Just too good ,too too good .. Direction was the key and ramu ,u have proved your capability again ,that such offbeat cinemas can be handled by very few in this industry .. I wont write the review as its written there by taran adarsh ,ill only recommend this movie to all those ppl who are passionate about quality cinema . Its nt about scaring ppl ,its about 2 hours of quality cinema with awesome editing and camera work ... Go ramu go ...  

A friend of mine once admitted that he was actually vary of his ten year old son talking too much…  

A friend of mine once admitted that he was actually vary of his ten year old son talking too much to his grand dad because he thought his senile dad would impart impractical mumbo-jumbo to his kid who he wanted to inspire with internet and a trip to Disney land. One day he threw a kulfi that his dad had brought for his kid fearing it had germs!<BR><BR> This is the starting point of Phoonk, where Rajiv, an atheist doesn’t like his ageing mother telling mythological stories of demons and gods to his school going daughter and son. <BR><BR> There was this godzilla of a family movie which was all about loving your parents…Strangely Phoonk, deceptively dished by Ram Gopal , is all about loving your kids. May be because of these reasons only , Phoonk failed to scare me in the way the promos intented.<BR><BR> In the whole treatment the emotional drama wins over horror. Masala moments where you almost feel a guilty pleasure watching the making and unmaking of the black magic. Once the black magic starts to show effects, everything starts going wrong for this happy Indian family. <BR><BR> The film takes time to pick up in the first half but the second half is a real cracker. Its an unending roller coaster ride of thrills, hits and misses, emotional conundrum. The camera movements merge so seamlessly with the characters that you feel its an opera. <BR><BR> I am a father of an infant girl and it gave me a certain insight into how do I see myself as a dad and how would I like to take care of my kid if there was any crisis ever. God forbid.<BR><BR> So the performances led by Sudeep are top notch, the little girl Raksha deserves special kudos for such subtle and imaginative portrayel of a girl plagued by black magic. Though I find the characterizations sketchy but good enough to drive this sleek, simple but powerful film.<BR><BR> Technically one of the best films of this year, Phoonk is full of long complicated camerawork instead of dead close ups. There are silences and spaced out scenes long enough to let you munch your popcorn. A powerful emotional drama with correct doses of thrill, Phoonk more than a horror film emerges as an emotional film. <BR><BR> Even Akshay Kumar will agree for a change that no matter what the genre is, content will always be king.<BR><BR> It’s just another film till it happens to you. shouldn’t Ram say that? 

Even a small school boy can watch it alone. Shut up Ram Gopal Verma. The fear factor featured in…  

Even a small school boy can watch it alone. Shut up Ram Gopal Verma. The fear factor featured in ‘Phoonk’ is said to seep into the system of the viewer rather than just affecting him visually on the surface level. The horror element in the film is said to have been blended quite well with the emotional component, making the viewer relate to the situations and characters of the film.<BR><BR> So the performances led by Sudeep are top notch, the little girl Raksha deserves special kudos for such subtle and imaginative portrayel of a girl plagued by black magic. Though I find the characterizations sketchy but good enough to drive this sleek, simple but powerful film.<BR><BR> Technically one of the best films of this year, Phoonk is full of long complicated camerawork instead of dead close ups. There are silences and spaced out scenes long enough to let you munch your popcorn. A powerful emotional drama with correct doses of thrill, Phoonk more than a horror film emerges as an emotional film. 

In my individualistic opinion, it's outstanding! It holds your attention all through. The subject -…  

In my individualistic opinion, it's outstanding! It holds your attention all through. The subject - black magic is works big time because somewhere deep within us, we've heard of the power of the unknown. PHOONK isn't scary than bhoot. But it is a good movie to watch. Because there is finest works of this kind of films. Plzzz go and watch this film in theatre.  

i like movie beacause it happen with us and rgv done a very good job. his subject is outstatending…  

i like movie beacause it happen with us and rgv done a very good job. his subject is outstatending .all character done avery good acting.