Paheli: Movie Review

Rating: *

Although not exactly the Webster's definition for the word, Paheli literally translates to 'riddle'. And it stands true to its name. The million dollar question is 'How?'. And I would earnetsly try to answer the quesion here in this review.

This is a story about love - I know that you have heard this one before, but please be a bit more patient before you jump to any conclusions. Based on a famous Rajasthani folk tale 'Duvidha', this movie's story looked very promising at the very onset - not the usual la-la-hoo love story, but a more sensible and interesting one. After the previews, I expected nothing but an awesome movie. My hopes were however, completely quashed.

The film boasts of a mammoth star cast - Shahrukh 'The King' Khan and Bollywood's erstwhile numero uno Rani Mukherjee, not to mention the cameos by Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla and Sunil Shetty, and the narrators Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah. This film is the story of Lachi (Rani) and Kishna (Shah Rukh), the latter leaves her the night after wedding without having so much as touched her, Lachi is distressed, a ghost who in love with Lachi arrives to her in-laws' home in the guise of her husband, and expresses his love. So far so good!
Just about then, he reveals to her the truth. And just about then, the film also starts faltering, and there is no redemption till the very end of the film. Amol Palekar, a very experienced and critically acclaimed director is holding the directorial baton. But this time, he fails, and fails by a long margin. I would not say that the idea of a ghost and his muse in love is not interesting enough. No. But the director totally and utterly has missed the point! What could have been an engrossing story about love and relationships, about the moral dilemma of right and wrong, about individuality and society turns out to be a sheer disappointing potboiler.

The setting is supposed to be in Rajasthan - yet there is not even a single actor in the film who can speak Rajasthani without making a mockery of it. Just like adding an 'o' to all words does not turn Hindi into Bengali; Rajsthani is not just about making the 'n's in all words more nasal and glottal. I was not expecting a perfection la Meryl Streep - her near perfect adoption of Australian, British and Texan accents in her films - but the dialogue delivery in Paheli is just pathetic! Absolutely no homework has been put into training the actors how to look or feel the part.

Sharukh Khan proves yet again that King Kong can act better than King Khan. He is truly a revelation - a shocking one! Abyssmal would be my description of his entire presentation - he is evidently uncomfortable in the dhoti, has no body language to convey his emotions, has butchered the Rajasthani language to shreds and exhibits complete lack of sensitivity in his performance. Right from the first frame till the very end of the film, you see Shahrukh Khan and not Kishna - the husband or Kishna - the ghost. So different from his Mohan Bhargav act in Swades.

Rani Mukherjee, as always, looks very beautiful and lends some credibility to her part. But given the plot, a better characterization and control over the subtle nuances of the situation would have made all the difference. Here again, the director is entirely to blame.
One wonders why Amitabh Bachchan was added to play the role of the old shepherd. Not only was his presence unnecessary, but the part was too insignificant and inconsequential that it would hev been played by just anyone. Moreover, the character just seems too unwordly to make any sense in the already trouble enterprise that Paheli is. Likewise, Juhi Chawla and Suniel Shetty are completely out of place and have no significance in the entire movie whatsoever. Even if all their frames are edited out of the movie, the movie would remain just the same. Coming from the man who has given us amazing films in the past, not to fogret the recent Marathi film Anahat, this one is a huge disappointment. To the extent that great orators like Naseeruddin Shan and Ratna Pathak Shah sound jaded and fail to arouse either humor or emotion in the viewer.

The single * that I have given the movie is surely because of the visual treat that it was to see the colors of Rajsathan in their full glory. The costumes are vibrant and the art direction is surely a treat for the eyes. The songs are like a huge canvas of paintings that has been very aesthetically crafted. But the songs, though superbly shot, are far too many and appear everywhere in the movie out of nowhere. Although this time, they do bring relief from the other atrocities that the film inflicts on its viewers.

To conclude it all, Paheli is a great film to promote Rajasthan tourism. But why the director felt so strongly about the story to make it into a film remains a paheli to me. The whole controversy about Paheli being sent as India's entry for academy awards seems moot. The judgement is clear - Paheli doesnt have anything that would qualify it even for the roadside cine-awards in Matunga or Church Street, let alone the Academy Awards. The choices that our jury makes for official entries to Oscars are surely getting worse with each passing year. While an entry like Iqbal could have given us a respectable representation, Paheli makes sure that we definitely miss the bus this time, and make it difficult to catch it in the near future either!