Now that Paheli has been sent as a nomination for Oscars, I decided to give the movie a try.
Story of the movie is simple, a ghost fells in love with a woman. The ghost follows his love(Rani Mukherji) and while her husband (Shahrukh Khan) is away, takes his form. She too starts loving the ghost. And when the ghost is at home, he starts performing miracles for the family.(Not miracles actually, when he sees some things are not right, he tries to change them using his powers. )
So, as you all must have guessed till now, the 100 Rupee question is: what will happen when the real Shahrukh comes back ? How will others know who is real, who is not ? Can Rani easily forget her love ?
This is the Paheli which has to be solved.
As it has been publcized, this movie is actually based on a folk-story of Rajasthan. So, don’t put too much brains in this movie. Like one of the objections to this movie by my friends was that how can a ghost impregnate a woman ? As I said, this is a folk-tale, that’s how things work in such stories, impossible things are made possible.
Overall, movie is simple and short. The whole story revolves around Shahrukh and Rani’s love story. Unlike other SRK movies , this was better in the sense that he did not tried to act like a ’’HERO’’. He is a character like Rani who happens to be the central one. Anupam Kher don’t get too much of a exposure , but he is good in his role as a greedy and selfish businessman father of SRK
Perhaps the most spectacular point of ’Paheli’ is Ravi K Chandran’s cinematography (who has also cinematographied ’Black’) . The background theme ’Rajasthan’ is really great.
Paheli is a good movie, but not good enough for the nomination for Oscars. Perhaps, movie’s depiction of India’s culture and original story would have given it an edge over other movies, but that’s besides the point.
Overall, I would say Paheli is watchable once, but not a must movie !