Phoonk 2 - Review

Ramgopal Varma's love for horror and supernatural continues. This time, in Phoonk 2, the team behind Phoonk promise more chills, more thrills and more screams. But what you get to hear at the end of the screening is a moan, since Phoonk 2 lacks the chills, thrills and screams that were the mainstay of its first part.

A sequel works if it goes one step ahead of the first part, in terms of content mainly. But Phoonk 2 doesn't take a step forward, but a step backwards. So what's the problem? Let's get into the introspection mode...

The problem is, what does the viewer expect from Phoonk 2? More terrifying and scary moments, right? But Phoonk 2 comes across as one of those usual revenge films, which tries so hard to create an eerie atmosphere, but never succeeds. It's more of a slasher film actually!

The problem is, the pace of Phoonk 2 is excruciatingly slow, which just doesn't work or a horror film. The story unravels at a snail's pace and with hardly any terrifying/eerie moments in those two hours, the film falls flat on its face.

The problem is, Phoonk 2 fails in its writing. The idea is a master stroke and had writer turned director Milind Gadagkar handled it right, Phoonk 2 would've scared the daylights out of you. But the film looks incomplete and the viewer keeps wondering, where did the spirit disappear?

Final word? Phoonk 2 lacks the grip of Phoonk. A complete letdown!

Phoonk ends with the killing of Madhu [Ashwini Kalsekar], the woman who casts a black magic spell on Rajiv's [Sudeep] daughter Raksha [Ahsaas Channa]. PHOONK 2 begins with Madhu's ghost returning from the grave to seek revenge on the family.

Rajiv moves with his family to a new place. Raksha and her brother Rohan begin exploring the new place and the surroundings -- the lonely beach and then the woods behind the house. The terror begins with Raksha and Rohan finding a doll in the woods and then it progresses to a series of highly traumatizing experiences for the whole family.

Manja [Zakir Hussain], the only man whom Rajiv could turn to, meets a gruesome death at the hands of Madhu's ghost. Madhu seeks revenge on Rajiv by torturing his loved ones -- his wife Aarti [Amruta Khanvilkar] and their children, Raksha and Rohan -- in unimaginably cruel ways.

Debutante director Milind Gadagkar uses every trick in the book to make Phoonk 2 work - night shots, secluded bungalow, eerie silence, captivating sound design and zany camera angles. Gadagkar does everything right, but conveniently forgets that any film, irrespective of its genre, works if the story is captivating and moves constantly. In this case, the story just doesn't move in the first hour, except towards the interval point.

The post-interval portions show some movement, but a number of questions remain unanswered. What do Amit Sadh and Neeru see in the jungles that they start running helter-skelter? Also, if the spirit could enter a body [in this case, the wife's], where does it disappear when the wife falls off the terrace towards the end? Ideally, you expect the spirit to come face to face and battle it out with the already cornered Sudeep and his two kids. But the spirit doesn't!

Gadagkar had a brilliant idea, but he fails to translate it well on celluloid. To make matters worse, the film just doesn't scare you one bit. The sound design is right, while the movement of the camera reminds you so much of RGV-directed movies.

Sudeep does a fairly okay job. Amruta Khanvilkar is expressive enough. The kids, Ahsaas and the kid playing her brother - are efficient. Neeru and Amit Sadh don't get much scope. Ashwini Kalsekar is hardly there. Ganesh Yadav, Zakir Hussain and Jeeva make brief appearances. Anu Ansari is okay.

On the whole, Phoonk 2 is a good idea gone horribly wrong. Disappointing!

Posted on 10:56 PM / 0 comments / Read More

Kambakkht Ishq - Review

Film: “Kambakkht Ishq”

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor

Director: Sabbir Khan

Rating: ***

There’s no business like show-off business. And “Kambakkht Ishq” has plenty to show off. Fabulous Hollywood locales, Hollywood icons like Sylvester Stallone and Brandon Routh doing cameos and above all, crackling and smouldering chemistry between the film’s lead pair.

Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor make a super glamorous couple. Even when they’re ready to bite off each others’ heads, call each other names and scream like a double-banshee delight at a horror festival, there is just no way the compatibility of the combo can be repeated … even by them.

Indeed if the supreme silliness of the plot in “Kambakkht Ishq” works it’s because of Akshay and Kareena’s glorious goofiness. The lead pair, never in better form, gets into the grandly caricaturish groove effortlessly and convincingly.

For Akshay and Kareena it’s hate at first sight. They pass sexist remarks about the opposite sex loud enough for the other to hear. They continuously carp about the vices of being of the opposite sex in a world polluted by bigotry and gender bias. Goodness, these two despicable creatures deserve each other!

The battle of the sexes is loud and aggressive, designed to create a cacophony of conflicts that leave us reeling in stupefied embarrassment.

Sure, we’ve seen other films about a goofy man and stuck-up woman who can’t stand each other. But none so engrossed their own self-serving hemispheres.

Seemingly rudderless and often risque, “Kambakkht Ishq” is a film that doesn’t endear itself with its plot. It’s all about the styling often at the cost of what most moviegoers think of as substance.

But there is no real substance in “Kambakkht Ishq”. The storyline is wispy slim and the gasbag gags are as cheesy as the goofy grin that Akshay wears like second skin. The veneer of vivacity seldom falls off, though admittedly some episodes wear us out with their svelte jibes at that old and baffling thing called the man-woman relationship.

The film is a no-holds-barred gender war - tangy, spicy and supremely smug in its silliness. And Akshay’s character slowly realises that there’s more to love than scoring.

The farce fest miraculously manages to sustain the mood of zany fun most of the way. But some episodes like Boman Irani’s cameo appearance as a shrink fall flat.

But as far as eye-catching locales and protagonists go, “Kambakkht Ishq” goes a long way. The Akshay-Kareena pair just makes you stare. And if you are into clothes and accessories you could spend an evening with “Kambakkht Ishq” just checking out what Kareena wears and how well she carries it off.

Akshay’s comic timing has now been honed to a fine art. He invests his completely caddish character’s personality with a frank and fearless arrogance that borders on megalomania but finally settles on being plain outrageous.

Kareena matches him step by step. Just because she looks like a million bucks doesn’t mean her performance is cosmetic too. Her satirical expressions as a man-hater are to die for.

Debutant director Sabbir Khan knows how to bring out the beast in his characters and milks the outrageous situations for all their mirth. Somewhere in this jokey binge of gender wars, Sylvester Stallone pops up for two of the film’s most arresting sequences.

But ‘Superman’ Brandon Routh is utterly wasted.

Where else but in Bollywood would Routh come across such a farcical feast designed in a slick-flick format where the hero is operated on by a supermodel who moonlights as a surgeon and leaves a watch in the hero’s stomach?

The watch chimes a Hindu mantra into Akshay Kumar’s ears ad nauseum. He’s of course maddeningly annoyed. We’re by then beyond that point.

Applaud this film for its audacity, vivacity and energy. And please don’t look for a reason behind the comic chaos. Some things are not meant to mean anything beyond what they seem. This film is a marvel of packaging.

Posted on 11:04 PM / 0 comments / Read More