There’s no doubt that Ram Gopal Varma’s genre of horror is way better than the traditional Ramsay Brothers’ formula. Even so, low expectations is no excuse for making a mediocre film. Phoonk is a mixture of ideas taken from The Omen, The Exorcist and others, with an occasional attempt at cuteness. The underlying theme is the usual one: a man who doesn’t believe in the supernatural and his gradual transformation into a believer. Perhaps this movie was aimed at an audience unfamiliar with those classic themes, but a little originality would have been more than welcome.

I am also disappointed with the background score of the film. This is one of the most important elements of any movie, and is especially important for one that claims to scare its audience. Consider any well-received movie and you will find a fantastic score played at the right time and place, subtle yet effective. In the case of Phoonk and such other films, there’s nothing but a supposedly scary piece of music played loudly at random intervals, making it quite hard to listen to the dialogue.

Cinema is a composition of light and sound that requires careful timing, a plot built up at the right pace and a series of climaxes that enthralls the audience in one way or the other. Phoonk tries to be a ‘scary movie’ from the beginning to the end, and not surprisingly, it fails at this task.