Rajneesh’s wife, Roshni, goes missing. Adah helps in the police investigations because she possesses special powers. Where is Roshni? Is she dead or alive? Read the review of Phhir for more.
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Star cast: Rajneesh Duggal, Adah Sharma, Roshni Chopra.
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What’s Bad: The lack of novelty in the story; the feeling the audience gets of watching a film based on a script of convenience; confusing and less interesting second half.
Verdict: Phhir will find the going tough. A below average fare.
Loo break: Not really.
User rating:
ASA Production & Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.’s Phhir (UA) is a thriller. Kabir Malhotra (Rajneesh Duggal) is married to Sia (Roshni Chopra). They live abroad and while Kabir is a very busy doctor, Sia is a professor in a prestigious college. Suddenly one day, Sia goes missing. The investigating police officer is Asif Shaikh (Parag Tyagi) but his efforts to trace Sia prove futile as the police doesn’t have a clue about what has happened to her. Disha (Adah Sharma) is known to Asif as she has been helping the police in solving several cases because she is a medium who is endowed with the ability to see incidents which are about to transpire or have happened even though they may have no connection with her and even though she may not have been present when they transpired.
Kabir is reluctant to use her services at first because he doesn’t believe, anybody can possess the powers she has, but he soon realises that Disha indeed has some supernatural power. As the investigation progresses, it emerges that Sia has been kidnapped. Sia’s close friend, Monica (Monica), is suddenly found dead in her house one day. Who killed Monica? Why? Who kidnapped Sia? What does the abductor of Sia demand from Kabir by way of ransom? What does Kabir learn when he goes to meet the kidnapper? Does Kabir pay the ransom money? Does he get back Sia? What is Disha’s role in the solving of the case? Why does she back out in between, for a while?
Vikram Bhatt’s story is not novel as thrillers with similar story lines have been seen in the past too. Also, one has seen films where a character has the ability to foresee the future and also visualise what has transpired in the past without being part of the happening. The screenplay, penned by Vikram Bhatt, Dheeraj Ratan and Vrushali Telang, has plenty of twists and turns to keep the audience engrossed right from the word ‘go’. But the pace drops in the second half once Sia arrives on the scene because the portion that follows is routine. The scenes that happen a little before Sia is traced and those after she is found are also confusing as they refer to the previous birth of Kabir. In other words, the drama to trace Sia is interesting till it is not known where she is or whether she is even alive but the same cannot be said about what happens once Sia is found. Besides, since Disha’s mind has the ability to reach where no person can, the audience is likely to view this capacity as a tool for writing a screenplay of convenience. Dialogues, written by Girish Dhamija, are appropriate.
Rajneesh Duggal does reasonably well. Adah Sharma is quite nice. Roshni Chopra also performs fairly well. Parag Tyagi is average. Mohan Agashe makes his presence felt. Natasha Sinha (as Kabir’s mother), Monica, Raymond Irani (as the ‘kidnapper’) and the other supporting actors do as desired.
Click next for more on the direction & box-office verdict
Girish Dhamija’s direction is efficient. He has kept the pace of the narration fast so that the audience doesn’t get time to think. Music is okay. Satrang sathiya (composed by Toshi Sabri and Sharib Sabri) is a fairly appealing number. The other songs – ‘Yaadein’ (by Toshi-Sharib), Gumsum and Loot (both by Raghav Sachar) are alright. Song picturisations (Raju Khan and Mehul Gadani) could’ve been far better. Raju Rao’s background score is effective. Action scenes, composed by Abbas Ali Moghul, are alright. Pravin Bhatt’s cinematography is very good. The foreign locations look beautiful and lend the film a touch of class. Manish More’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Phhir may be a well-narrated film but it lacks novelty and will be taken by the audience as based on a script of convenience. It has taken a dull start, thanks to its low-key promotion, which will only make things more difficult.
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