Phobia (Hindi)
Director: Pawan Kripalani
Cast: Radhika Apte, Satyadeep Mishra, Ankur Vikal
Phobia makes for a nerve-wracking ride. It sucks you into the world of artiste Mehak (Radhika Apte) who suffers from an anxiety disorder called agoraphobia, following a sexual assault by a cab driver.
The disorder is to do with a fear of unfamiliar spaces and can immobilise a person to an extent that they’d not even step out of their own home. Even as her sister debates if Mehak needs institutional care her close friend Shaan (Satyadeep Mishra) relocates her to a friend’s strange, artistically run-down house. It is peopled by a black cat, the ghost of a dead woman and apparitions and spirits rising up from a bath tub. Then there are many whispers and voices rising up from the drainpipe. If that wasn’t enough there’s a weird neighbour Manu (Ankur Vikal) who is seeking laughter therapy to rid himself of his own anxieties and a kooky lady searching for a non-existent husband.
In a nutshell, all the usual claptraps of a horror film. No wonder you begin to question things rather rationally.
But then in Phobia nothing might quite be what it seems. The film uses the handy tools and devices of scary movies and turns them on the head in the smart twist of a climax. Of course the finale leaves many questions unanswered, leaves things unexplained and can make many in the audience feel utterly befuddled.
Phobia is relentlessly scary.
It’s as though you are living within the mind of Mehak, her unending claustrophobia and suffocation become your own.
NAMRATA JOSHI
