Phhir - What the hell was that, again?

August 13, 2011 05:22 pm | Updated October 18, 2016 12:46 pm IST

not again, please Phhir

not again, please Phhir

“You are being punished for your sins from your previous birth,” comes the answer when the clueless hero wonders why his wife went missing. If any of that reincarnation karma logic holds true, every person who bought a ticket to this film probably bored people to death telling stories in his/her previous birth.

Remember that “And then” joke from Dude, Where's My Car?

Phhir (And then…) is that joke.

As the film begins, almost every other scene has a date and time, up to date till the second, like it actually has something to do with the plot.

“And then?”

But, nope. It would have been a better idea to run a time-code that would tell us how much more of the film was left so that you could set your alarm accordingly and catch a few winks.

“And then?”

You would miss absolutely nothing at all even if you just woke up for the climax. The actors are unreadable. You can't tell if they are happy or sad or angry or aroused half the time.

“And then?”

Even the supernatural element seems to be put in for convenience than for intrigue because there is no consistency, logic or limitations to what the psychic can see and what she cannot.

“And then?”

So, sometimes, she's able to see the past. Sometimes, she gets premonitions of the future. Sometimes, she has to touch objects, sometimes people and once, she even gets a snatch of a visual by eavesdropping on a phone accidentally.

“And then?”

For some reason, the cops seem to need transmitters when they have their friendly neighbourhood psychic who helps them out regularly. What? You haven't heard of it? Happens all the time in this world.

“And then?”

With its seemingly improvised make-it-up-as-you-go narrative, the film goes back and forth in time to tell us something it forgot. And sometimes it is because it has changed its mind about how a scene ought to play out.

“And then?”

A plagiarised film, at least, keeps you intrigued about what was stolen and how it was changed. But this is worse. This is a script possibly written by a ghost. Maybe in ghost ink.

“And then?”

Now if only I had the power the psychic in the movie had, a mere touch of the newspaper ad or the mouse while booking tickets online would have saved me quite a bit of money and time.

“And then?”

And then, nothing.

“And then?”

Aargh!

“And then?”

Phhir

Genre: Thriller

Director: Girish Dhamija

Cast: Rajneesh Duggall, Adah Sharma, Roshni Chopra, Mohan Agashe

Storyline: A man goes in search of his missing wife and takes help from a psychic who can just touch objects, people and even mobile phone-signals somehow

Bottomline: What happens when you throw a bunch of non-actors together and let the audience read their face? A social experiment that makes you wonder if you are being punished for your sins.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.