Movie review: Paheli

WARNING: SPOILERS!!!

I finally saw Paheli, after almost a year of its release! Ive been aching to see it forever, but Sundays are the only days I get (I get sleepy on weeknights and then can't concentrate). I had heard so much about it - the Oscar entry controversy, opinions ranging from really bad - to timepass - to really well-made (OMG i love the website merging of their faces. *Sigh* it's really romantic). The women raved about the jewelry, as well as about how beautifully crafted every frame has been by Amol Palekar.

So I went in expecting a fairy tale with great visuals, and that's exactly what I got, and a lot more besides. The title itself in the beginning swirls into being through a dance of sand, giving a hint of the fantastical situation to follow. It starts off as fairytale of the kind every girl has dreamt of to some degree. Every girl is a princess in her own home, and dreams of being with her family forever, just as she fantasizes about her wedding night and the mysterious and exciting things men and women do after a glass of milk on a bed strewn with rose petals on a silent moonlit night with layers of clothing, and a husband who will love and respect and value her in countless little, delightful ways, where she will walk like the mistress of the house with honour and keys jingling a marble floor and countless other loving relatives. Our dreamy protagonist, Lachchi, played by Rani Mukherjee, embarks on just such a journey in a carriage, coy, though confident, of conjugal bliss to a faraway haveli.

Her husband Kishanlal, though rich, is a prisoner to the will of his miserly father, and a rather hesitant, slow, spineless type. He spends the entire ride to his house trying to account for all the expenses incurred during the wedding. His spinelessness, impotence outside leading to bossiness inside and total boring conventionality is evident in his interaction with Lachchi. He chides her for eating berries which only animals eat and says that his father will get angry if he sees her, to which she, naturally, pouts. As if what she did at home is not good enough for her new home! He sees her fiddling with her ring and takes it from her, saying it will fall. It is during this awkward silent ride that they stop at a supposedly haunted dharamshala (wayside inn), that a ghost sees her and falls in love with her. She sees signs of this ghost which scare her - such as wet footprints arising from the tank and up the lovely geometric steps which are evocative of Aztec temples, and runs up.

The ghost cannot get her beauty of of his mind and resolves to be with her somehow. A lovely effect at this point is a tree hung with talking puppets that only the ghost can hear, especially an old couple, who carry the story forward through their old-fashioned conversation. His chance comes when he encounters her husband the next day on his way to business, away for 5 years (yes indeed, the man left Lachchi the very next day, barren and empty, without having consummated their marriage, all her dreams to dust. His logic - which was actually his mothers -was "why ignite a fire of passion for just one night?"). Through some careful conversations the ghost discovers his origins, and once the coast is clear, takes on the form of her husband and returns home, where he bribes the father with 5 gold coins everyday. He waxes eloquently poetic to his 'wife', who is pleasantly surprised, and confesses to her about his real identity, and she allows him to stay, saying "I was unable to stop the one who left, how can I send away the one who comes?". Thus begins her fairytale life. Like his role in Kal Ho Na Ho, Shah Ruckh Khan in this movie too is like a guardian angel for the family, keeping them all happy and wealthy, enabling them through magic to win the camel race (the loss of which 7 years ago had led to his uncle abandoning his wife - Juhi Chawla in an exquisitely restrained role - and son and disappearing to salvage his honour), besides having a well built for the village. Lachchi gets pregnant after 2 years and celebrations are in full form.

In the meantime, the real Kishan is slogging away in Jamnagar, and missing home. His relatively feeble mind and romantic imagination remember his youthful wife with regret, her sorrow at their parting. He still has her ring with him, that he had taken from her on their wedding day, and remembering every moment of that day, he resolves to take for her the berries he had chided her for eating. However, he cannot muster the guts to write to her, but does to his father, to whom the letter never reaches due to a comic incident between Rajpal Yadav and the fake Kishan. He finally does return on the eve of Lachchi's delivery and shocks everyone. The defeated men, eager to see this family humiliated, and suspecting magic, take both to the king. On the way, teh real Kishan asks the ghost who he is and what he wants, and he replies that he is the love and desire for happiness and fulfilment that resides in every woman's heart.

They encounter Amitabh as an old shepherd. he devises 3 tests to see who is the real husband, and words it really well. The real husband has to touch burning coal with his bare hand, which the real son does, after much protest. The real son has to herd all the goats, for counting is the trader caste's forte. The real lover has to disappear in his water bag. Which the ghost does, breaking his promise to Lachchi to never show anyone that he is a ghost. The herder then shuts the bottle and traps him.

At home, no one blames Lachchi. When her huband comes to her at night, she tells him that she knew, and she's not sure she can love him because the ghost had become everything to her and her husband felt like a stranger. But he then tells her that he is the ghost who has taken over her husband's body to love her, and all is well.

It's a lovely story. There is sensuality and beauty in the soft colours of dreams, in the beautiful Rajasthani sets, in the romance of lovemaking on a rain-filled rooftop, in the jingle of bangles that women wear to adorn themselves for the men who have become a cherished part of them. The story is about women's yearning to be loved and needed, in both Lachchi's and her abandoned sister-in-law's stories, about nights of intimacy that transition into days of duty lovingly dispensed. The puppets add an ancient, traditional. folkloric feel to this very slickly shot picture. The performances are just right, subtle, not melodramatic. The songs are immensely hummable, especially Minnat Kare and Kangna Ve, very successful wedding songs, and Dheer jalna, which is packed with softly smouldering desire. The others are okay. Everyone looks stunning and the simplicity and lack of politics in familial relations is refreshing, and keeps the focus on the main issues. It did offer some opportunities for redemption for the real Kishan, to realise that marriage is an institution that surpasses costs and the locomotive transportation of a woman from one home to another. Lachchi is vocal with regard to her wifely rights, and not coy in the bedroom, which was natural and refreshing. Farah Khan's dance choreography left much to be desired. They should have used someone more comfortable with traditional dances. The clothes and jewelry and cinematography were stunning.

It's a must watch once. I'm not sure it would have been my choice for an Oscar entry... but the Indian committe involved in the selection seems to be enamoured by sets and colours and exotica. Unfortunately, they fail to see that India is far more complex than only yearning dolled-up wives and desert locales. That said, I would really encourage mainstream filmmakers to delve into our traditional folklore and mythology for a challenging storyline, and morally grey situations. The result would be far more vivid and thought-provoking than the simplistic, glitzy so-called "blockbusters" that are drowning the public's minds in inertia.

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Speaking of movies, I have LOVED the Amul ads for Bluffmaster and Rang De Basanti!!! See???

(The slogan at the bottom says 'Taste buds awaken')