Phobia : Movie Review
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Psychological thriller is a slightly less experimented genre in hindi cinema, since it attracts a very niche audience, requires a strong & intellectual directorial vision, with a brilliant ensemble of actors to make it look convincing on-screen. Over the years, while films like Bhoot, Gumnaam, Kaun, Kahaani, 13B, Karthik Calling Karthik, Ek Hasina Thi succeeded in gathering decent audience response, others like Khamosh, Stone Man Murders, Johnny Gaddar, Being Cyrus, despite having excellent screenplays, weren’t that successful at the Box Office. Nevertheless, this has never stopped good writers to work on the subject for sure! Phobia by Pavan Kirpalani tries to explore ‘Human Fear’ as its principal theme, and its impact on the society.
The film begins Mehak Deo (Raadhika Apte) a painter by profession, who after a particular ‘untoward’ incident develops agoraphobia, i.e. fear of public places. Her elder sister Anu (Nivedita Bhattacharya) initially tries to extend as much support as possible by facilitating therapies, etc. but is unable to cope up after a certain point of time. Subsequently Shaan (Satyadeep Mishra), Mehak’s good friend decides to shift her to his friend’s flat, which he believes will help her come out of her irrational fear slowly. The new place, at the face of it does appear a bit creepy at times. But the question is does it help Mehak gradually overcome her illness or ends up intensifying the situation? Phobia is about her battle within.
The narrative starts right from the word go, and doesn’t dwell much into the historical events, giving too many explanations as such. It focuses majorly the present and typical human reactions to various occurrences. The flow of sequences aptly manages to shock and sometimes freak out the viewer!
All the characters in the film are real-time, but shown to be a bit ‘eccentric’ in their own way. This ensures the protagonist not being victimized as a patient suffering from a ‘mental’ problem, to the audience. As the story unwinds in the second half, worms begin to come out of the bag one-by-one at a steady pace. But somewhere when it reaches the peak, certain aspects are left for the audience to gauge. Although this is a common feature for most psycho thrillers, both in India and abroad, the average cine-goer may find it kind of confusing.
Screenplay by Pavan Kirpalani, Pooja Ladha Surti, Arun Sukumar is pretty engaging. The flow of sequences aptly manages to shock and sometimes freak out the viewer! Cinematography by Jayakrishna Gummadi is top class. The way the visuals move frame to frame, your heart tends to skip a beat. Background score by Karan Gour gels well with the on-screen antics. Pooja Ladha Surti does a great job with the editing but somewhere, 2-3 additional minutes of sum-up could have been ideal.
Radhika Charudutt Apte is just phenomenal. It is indeed a challenging task for the lead actress to carry a complex film with an unusual theme on shoulders, esp. with co-actors being slightly less popular. But, Radhika proves her mettle by putting her heart and soul into Mehak’s character. She can easily be called as the new age Smita Patil, with the perfect combination of unconventional looks and immense talent.
Satyadeep Mishra as Mehak’s moral support is first-rate. Ankur Vikal as ‘Weird Manu’ is hilariously creepy like hell. Yashaswani Dayama as a cute, gullible teenager does exceptionally well. Nivedita Bhattacharya provides adequate support.
Overall, Phobia captures the essence of human psyche very well, with due credit to director Pavan Kirpalani. We may have the right people around, ready to help us resolve our problems, but at times our own subconscious ‘sane’ mind which knows us better, needs to be convinced first, to weave out the best possible solutions.
Worth a watch, and strongly recommended for a sequel!
Rating ***1/2
We The People 