Phoonk

The movie is reasonably good in Indian standards, with a few of blushes, which Shri RGV, as he is known and portrayed, was expected to be eradicated.

For an atheist hero, not to believe in supernatural forces even when his daughter defied gravity is beyond pardon, a blush on sensibility.

The fate of the ghost buster Zakir Hussain at the end of the movie is equally left unanswered and thus obnoxious.

The central characters blended well with the movie but the maid was expected to react better and so was the driver who was famous before as young Amitabh Bachchan, the Indian icon, in Agnipath shouting "maine jaala diya" (i burned it all), as did Seema Biswas in RGV's Bhooth. The Witch and the Witchdoctor were the best of the lot and they played the role of their lifetime. The spookiness was mostly in aggravated background score, which hummed more than it really scared.

Considering its a RGV production, I rated it 6, as he was expected to fare better.

I went for a Sarkar and came back with something in between Aag and Darna Maana Hai.

Sorry RGV, you ought to be more careful next time in hiring right people for editing notes, before heading for it.

The Censor Board has lost it. Is this horror? I always get scared on watching horror films, so I generally avoid them. But this...... I literally laughed in the first half! Closing up on toys and dolls and what not.... that literally have no relevance to the plot. Even the end climax was not very thrilling. You keep on waiting.... now something will happen, now something will happen..... you keep waiting but nothing happens. As for the cast performance:

Sudeep: Good. He makes a good impact as the protective father and atheist. The voice dubbing and lipsyncing are also on point. He and the young Ahsaas share a good chemistry as father and daughter.

Ahsaas Channa: She is great. One of the good ones. Her imitation of the possession as well as the emotional scenes makes your heart ache for her. Good one.

Ashwini Kalsekar: Tries to look horrifying and scary, but ends up looking simply ridiculous, especially in the scene in the car where she cries and causes her kajal to smear on her face. Not her fault, attribute it to bad direction and writing.

The others, like Lilette Dubey, Amruta Khanvilkar, Kenny Desai, Shrey Bawa and other characters are good. Casting is great.

Verdict: Good movie, but if you are looking for a great horror movie, don't go for it.

I saw this movie and it seems completely absurd. Some concept taken from Hollywood movie exorcist, while main concept being a girl is under spell of black magic. And finally at the end of movie, Indian black magic women becomes some mutant from Hollywood movie X-men, throwing peoples in air by powers of her hand. This whole concept appears to be ridiculously crazy. To any horror movie fans, an advice, just completely avoid this movie.

Even in this modern age, renowned directors like this one makes movies that what we all consider superstitious and that only old and illiterate peoples in India believe. To make it worse, this movie gives justification in stupid way as to why we should believe in "Kaala Jadu" Black Magic. Although, I believe Black magic in scientific way, but this doesn't means all the rubbish beliefs among illiterates have some basis. In one shot the main actor is talking to a guy who cures peoples suffering from possession, He tell him "I don't believe in God" to which that guy gives a weird explanation as to why we should believe in black magic. He starts by telling him if he takes some medicine for headache,why does he believe in that headache pill.For this question our main actor has no answer. I was in complete disbelief while watching this as to how low this movie can go down further.

After seeing the trailers, I was expecting much more than what I actually saw. The story line was pretty predictable and that is something you would never expect from a decent horror movie. The actors were good considering most of them were newcomers, but they would have done better with a good story line. Overall an average movie. I would rate Darna Mana Hai and Bhoot higher than Phoonk. It's sad to see that we don't see any decent horror movies in Bollywood and they tend to mess up the ones which they try to remake from a decent Hollywood movie. Though horror movies do appeal to Indian audiences, I feel they get disappointed every time they watch a Bollywood horror movie

There seems to be only two genres which are penchant to RGV, underworld and horror. He redeems himself with an "underworld" outing for every mistake he commits in an "horror".

§ Sudeep:: The new protégé'. Quite promising – bears shades of Manoj Bajpai.

§ Amruta Khanvilkar:: From Zee Cinestars Ki Khoj to RGV camp, she has come a long way.

§ Ashish Channa:: The kids are watching too much horror programs and it clearly shows.

§ Ashwini Kalsekar:: Scary portrayal but at times over the top (and a bit amusing in few scenes!). Same for the actor who played her husband.

§ The lady who played the Mother's part was quite natural .

§ Lillette Dubey & KK Raina:: Characterization was a bit skewed, inadequately fleshed out.

§ Zakir Hussain:: The star performer and carries his role quite effectively.

Background score is not too loud – thankfully.

The movie bears RGV stamp all over… and the weird camera angles come as a part of the package.

Raat, Bhoot, Darling, Vaastushastra & the Darna series - reminds me of the story of the spider who refuses to give up. RGV is enamoured by Alfred Hitchcock/ Stanley Kubrick who merely used narration and background score as tools to play with the minds of the audience and create a horror sans blood and gore . Phoonk is yet another attempt to set a similar benchmark on the home ground.

What are you waiting for? Bring on Shabri too..... we have the gut to digest that as well.