A good ghost movie is never just about the ghost; the restless spirits of the dead are a perfect vehicle for the delivery of metaphor. This is true whether the movie is a horror story or a frothy romance. A movie like Phillauri (2017) might bend the rule, but in the end, metaphor is inevitable.
Kanan (Suraj Sharma) is an aspiring rapper, flying home from Canada to marry his childhood sweetheart, Anu (Mehreen Pirzada.) he's also quietly freaking out; he loves Anu, but isn't sure he's ready to get married, wants to see if he can succeed in his rap career, and wants to find himself. He's not comfortable talking about with Anu, though, so instead he stews and acts aloof and weird.
Things are about to get weirder. According to his horoscope, Kanan is a Manglik, born under the malign influence of Mars, and his marriage is fated to end in disaster. The accepted remedy is to accelerate the disaster by marrying the unfortunate Maglik to an animal, an object, or, as in Kanan's case, a tree. Kanan marries the tree, the tree is chopped down, and the problem is solved.
The trouble is, this particular tree is haunted by the ghost of Shashi (Anuska Sharma.) Shashi is now technically married, and her tree is gone, so she doesn't really have anything else to do but haunt Kanan, and by haunt I mostly mean "Provide a sarcastic running commentary on the wedding preparations." Still, it's enough to freak Kanan out, and he starts acting even more aloof and weird, further alienating Anu.
And Shashi has her own story, involving her old fashioned and strict brother (Manav Vij), as well as Roop Lal Phillauri (Diljit Dosanjh), a charming rogue who makes his living singing bawdy songs for the local villagers, but also has a reputation for publishing amazing poetry in the weekly newspaper. Shahsi isn't impressed with his singing, and she slaps him when he tries to woo her with one of the poems, because she knows he didn't write them. She did.
Roop Lal immediately decides to reform, and does a pretty good job of it. It's enough to win over Shahsi, but not nearly enough to win over her brother. And since Shashi is a ghost in the present, it's clear that this story is not going to have a happy ending.
Phillauri is probably at its best during the scenes set in the present day, with the hapless Kanan and Anu confronted by their own anxieties and Shashi as the looming specter of relationship anxiety. It's an engaging mix of genuine relationship drama and fish (or rather ghost) out of water comedy. Anushka Sharma is good at being funny, and these scenes give her the chance to be funny.
The flashback scenes aren't bad, by any means, but they move at a much slower pace than the rest of the movie, and so they seem to drag a bit by comparison. One thing the scenes do very well, though is the poetry. It can be hard to convey artistic talent onscreen, but Shashi's poetry is genuinely good.
Phillauri is also genuinely good, but it's at its best when it gives its ghost a little bit of distance.
No comments:
Post a Comment