April 16, 2010
Cast: Anu Ansari, Ahsaas Channa, Jeeva, Amruta Khanvilkar, Amit Sadh, Vikas Shrivastav, Neeru Singh, Sudeep, Ganesh Yadav
Director: Milind Gadagkar
In Phoonk 2, which opens this week, the crazy woman with bloodshot eyes and a shrill cackle returns to torment the family that barely survived her black-magic in the last film.
I know what you’re thinking – they killed her in the previous film, didn’t they? Well technically they did, but this time she’s back as a spirit seeking revenge, and she’s got herself a frizzy hair-do too.
Madhu, played hysterically by Ashwini Kalsekar in Ramgopal Varma’s Phoonk, doesn’t get as much screen time in the sequel. But compared to this dumb family that moves into another large spooky house — this one in the middle of a jungle, by the way — give me the crazy lady any day!
Sudeep is back as the head of this family that moves into a sprawling Alibaug bungalow where strange things begin to happen after his young daughter brings home an abandoned doll she finds in the jungle one day. Expect lots of tilted camera angles, tight close-ups and a slow-building background score.
Unfortunately there’s very little in terms of plot progression, and barely any novelty or imagination in the manner that characters get killed in this film. The body count piles up, but it’s all done so predictably it deprives you of guilty pleasure even.
Written and directed by Milind Gadagkar who wrote the previous installment, Phoonk 2 is what you’d describe as Ramgopal Varma-lite. The thrills and scares are few and far between. They could have made this film in their sleep. Who knows, they probably did!
I’m going with a generous two out of five for Phoonk 2. Second helpings seldom taste as good.