Paheli


Paheli is an Indian Hindi fantasy film released in India on 24 June 2005. It is a remake of the 1973 Hindi movie Duvidha by Mani Kaul based on the short story written by Vijayadan Detha in Rajasthani. It was also partially inspired by the Kannada movie Nagamandala. It was directed by Amol Palekar and produced by Juhi Chawla, Aziz Mirza, Sanjiv Chawla and Shah Rukh Khan, who also plays the male lead. It tells the story of a wife who is left by her husband and visited by a ghost, disguised as her husband, who is in love with her and takes her husband's place. Sunil Shetty, Juhi Chawla, Rajpal Yadav and Amitabh Bachchan have supporting roles in the film.
The movie opened the ninth Zimbabwe International Film Festival at the Libertie Cinema Complex in Harare. It was also screened at both the Sundance Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The working title of the movie was Ghost Ka Dost. Paheli was India's official entry to the 2006 Oscars.

Plot

The movie is narrated by two puppets, voiced by Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah.
Enthusiastic young Lachchi is to be married to Kishan, the son of the rich merchant Bhanwarlal. Kishan is a dutiful son who honors his father's wish to start a new, far-away business on a predetermined auspicious date, which happens to be the day after the wedding ceremony. On the wedding night, Kishan turns away from his wife to finish his bookkeeping, and in the early morning hours sets off on a business trip that is to last five years. Lachchi is devastated; Gajrobai, her husband's sister-in-law, consoles her, empathizing on the grounds that Gajrobai's husband Sunderlal has also disappeared. The next day, a ghost appears, having taken Kishan's shape and voice because of his own attachment to Lachchi.
Lachchi is thus presented with a dilemma between the representation of all of her desires in the form of the ghost who has taken the form of her real husband. She takes this newfound, sexual, magical, social, self-confident version of Kishan as hers. As Kishan, the ghost befriends all of the real Kishan's family and keeps Bhanwarlal happy by providing him with magical, possibly illusory, gold coins. His only blunder is in his treatment of the messenger Bhoja, who is perplexed by the idea that Kishan has sent a letter from his business trip only to receive it himself in his own house and offended when the ghost does not offer him a drink of water. Lachchi's bliss goes on until four years later when she is pregnant and the real Kishan returns to see if the rumours about his wife's pregnancy are true. He returns to find the ghost in his own form. Kishan's family is unable to determine which of the doppelgangers is the real Kishan. They decide to visit the king so that he can arbitrate.
On the way to the king they meet an old shepherd, Gadariya who helps them out. He asks the real son of Bhanwarlal to pick up hot coals, asks the real husband to gather the sheep, and asks Lachchi's real paramour to enter a water-bottle. The real Kishan is found out and everyone returns home. Lachchi is devastated over the loss of the ghost. In the very end, it is revealed that the ghost has escaped the bottle and taken control of Kishan's body to live with her. By now Lachchi has given birth to a daughter, Looni Ma, by whom the ghost exposes his identity to Lachchi. The puppets end the story, remarking that this is a very old folk tale.

Cast

Paheli was shot entirely in Rajasthan in a period of 45 days. In 2004, Amol Palekar went to Shah Rukh Khan with a request for a hearing. After listening to the script, Khan asked Palekar if he could produce it as well as star in it. According to Khan, Paheli is a woman's liberation film that deals with the issues of marriage and asks whether a woman must stay with a man only due to marriage and not out of love. One of the scenes was filmed at the Chand Baori.

Reception

Critical reception

Paheli was nominated as India's official entry to the 79th Academy Awards.
Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave it 4/5 stars and said: "On the whole, Paheli is one of the finest films produced in recent times. A film like this proves yet again that we don't need to seek inspiration from outsiders , when Indian literature is rich enough to provide us with captivating stories." Raja Sen from Rediff.com called it "A breathtaking dream", and said: "First things first, this is the best-looking Indian film in a very long time, and ranks up there with the finest ever. Amol Palekar has crafted a delectable fairytale that is incredibly well-shot. Ravi K Chandran's cinematography is spellbinding as he casts us into the fabulous sandscapes of Rajasthan with fluid harmony. Each frame of the film is picture-perfect, marinated in intoxicating colour. Watching Paheli is quite an experience, and it's from the very opening shot of the film that its sheer, magical palette overwhelms us." It was featured in The ten best Indian films of 2005 list by Rediff.com, ranked third.

Box office

Paheli saw 90% occupancy during its opening. The film had a total net gross of in India and an additional US$3.63 million in the overseas market. It was declared an "average success" in India but a "hit" abroad. It proved to be a safe and profitable venture for its distributors.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is composed and produced by M. M. Kreem with lyrics by Gulzar. The soundtrack for the film released on 9 May 2005.
Track listing
Paheli received many awards and nominations.
AwardCategoryRecipients and NomineesResults
National Film AwardsBest Female Playback SingerShreya Ghoshalrowspan="1"
Filmfare AwardsBest Male Playback SingerSonu Nigamrowspan="2"
Filmfare AwardsBest LyricistGulzar-
Zee Cine AwardsBest Art DirectionMuneesh Sappalrowspan="2"
Zee Cine AwardsBest Film ProcessingR Mittal-
Zee Cine AwardsBest ActorShahrukh Khanrowspan="7"
Zee Cine AwardsBest Male Playback SingerSonu Nigam-
Zee Cine AwardsBest ChoreographyFarah Khan-
Zee Cine AwardsBest CinematographyRavi K. Chandran-
Zee Cine AwardsBest Costume DesignShalini Sarna-
Zee Cine AwardsBest Publicity DesignR D Parinja-
Zee Cine AwardsBest AudiographyAnuj Mathur-
Star Screen AwardsBest Art DirectionMuneesh Sappalrowspan="2"
Star Screen AwardsBest Male Playback SingerSonu Nigam-
Star Screen AwardsBest ActorShahrukh Khanrowspan="5"
Star Screen AwardsBest CinematographyRavi K. Chandran-
Star Screen AwardsBest Music DirectorM. M. Keeravani-
Star Screen AwardsBest LyricistGulzar-
Star Screen AwardsBest ChoreographerFarah Khan-

Trivia

The film Paheli has resemblances to the screenplay of Kannada film Nagamandala. Paheli's director, Amol Palekar, was accused of plagiarising the screenplay and storyline from Nagamandala. However, Amol dismissed the accusation saying that Paheli was adapted from a short story Duvidha written by Vijayadan Detha which had earlier been adapted into 1973 movie Duvidha.