There's an unexpected quirky pr-climax which lightens the mood only to take you to a gory but impactful climax that gives an apt closure to the first two acts. Phobia terrifies you with its creepiness and when you think you know where it is heading it surprises you. Nothing is what it seems and the atmospheric horror is devoid of any cheesy sequence. Believe me "Phobia" is something which you have never witnessed in a Hindi horror film. Initially the whole setting seems like a typical Hindi horror film but as the film moves ahead you will be stunned at the smartness of Pawan Kirpalani's execution. But the apartment has its own story which results in her getting trapped from outside as well as within. To accelerate her healing process her well-wishers thought that a change would be beneficial thus Mahek gets shifted to a used but empty apartment. The quote merges into a painting with that of a hand in the left side of the frame trying to reach out for help while half a dozen of hands are trying to rescue him from the right side of the frame or are they? This picture coupled with Kafka's quote quite sums up the whole film which revolves around an upcoming painter Mahek who is suffering from acute agoraphobia (a fear of open spaces). The film open with a famous quotation of Franz Kafka, "A cage went in search of a bird" and you're in for a roller-coaster psychological ride. The film's taut narrative neither ignores viewer's intelligence nor does it test their patience. "Phobia" is one such gem of a film that demands your attention and might just be the game-changer in the space of psychological horror thrillers in Hindi cinema. There are good films and there are great films but few films have the potential to change a genre or start a new one. But at the psychological level, it makes you think long after you have left the cinema hall. At the visceral level it is a solid thriller with a potential to wet your pants. The film ends with a red dot (Bindi?) being applied on Mehak's painting to indicate that it is sold. Background score works non-intrusively on the subconscious.
Director Pawan Kriplani goes for the jugular, just when your muscles were beginning to relax. Phobia is an extremely clever film it is revived miraculously from the precipice of an almost hilarious ending. Some extremely subtle hints are dropped, so fleeting that you will miss if you blink. Just when you feel that the director has pulled out all stops and you have sorted out all the conundrums, the film shifts to a different plane. There is a black cat and a black spider, both important symbols in case you want to psychoanalyse the film later. Mehak's traumatised mind plays tricks on her and the director plays tricks on our mind. Rest of the film plays out in the claustrophobic confines of this apartment, whose former tenant, a stewardess named Jiah, has mysteriously vanished into thin air. When the therapy makes little progress, Shaan rents out an apartment and moves her there to recover. After the opening credits, we see that Mehak has become a nervous wreck consequent to the rape and is being administered Virtual Reality therapy to cure her of Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces). The cabbie takes her to a secluded spot and rapes her. She spurns the offer and continues in the taxi. On the way Shaan gets down and invites her to spend the night with him. She then leaves the party in a taxi with her best friend, Shaan. Mehak Deo (Radhika Apte) is a painter and is narrating a creepily uncomfortable joke to her male friends at a party: An old man has been ogling at her because her face resembles his bitch that was killed in a car accident, eerily on the same day when Mehak was born.
What follows next is arguably one of the most significant prologues in Hindi Cinema miss this and you won't get the essence of the film.
That Phobia is not everyone's cup of tea is established in the opening frame itself with this intriguing quote of Franz Kafka: A cage went in search of a bird.
0 kommentar(er)
