All the efforts to push Anushka Sharma's Pari as a horror film over the last one year, comes to a dead end with its climax. It challenges cliches attached with horror films. It skips the eerie music playing in the background when devils do what they have to do. It doesn't even end as a story that can be turned into a franchise, like most horror films. Even with some tropes of a typical horror film, it stands apart because of the fight within the devil's conscience—and there lies the beauty of the film.
Can devils have a heart? This is the question you leave with after watching the film.
The masked ghosts of Hindi films aren't around—what one sees rather is a hideous-looking Sharma as Rukhsana. Again, the setup of the story in an Islamic world is a novelty. The human stuck with the devil, unlike many other Hindi films, is not reciting Hanuman chalisa or Gayatri mantra. It shows the evil forces of Efreet, the supernatural force popular in middle eastern folklore. We just hear the voice, and that is enough to create the effect that director Prosit Roy wants to.
Roy's attempt seems to be to stay away from stereotypes. Buzzing with ideas, Roy creates a setup in a rainy Bengal where Arnab (Parambrata Chatterjee) accidentally meets Rukhsana—after the car driven by his father hits her mother. She is curled up, tied in chains, in a secluded hut somewhere in the woods. In a world of deaths, morgues, a one-eyed professor (Rajat Kapoor) discussing ghosts and evil forces, Arnab is the balancing force, working in a printing press while his parents worry about his marriage. He has met a girl, Piyali (Ritabhari Chakraborty), a medical professional fighting the demons of her past— of love gone wrong, an abortion and getting over it all. And how all of it culminates into giving the film a direction.
A simple, do-gooder man, Arnab is stricken with guilt after the accident that has killed Rukhsana's mother. He shelters her till an alternative is found. In doing that, he is stuck with a force he wouldn't know how to resist. She is naive, unaware as well. But that's the human side of her—enough to attract a man. The devil is exposed later, and that too creepily. Sharma's portrayal of a ghost is macabre. She is not just trying to scare you with bloody eyes and appearance-disappearance sequences, she is trying to scare you with daily routines of cutting nails or something as simple as eating. She is scary, often reminding you of Revathy in Raat (1992) which over time has attained a cult status.
It's not that the film doesn't have its flaws; there are some, like the climax, which could have left a lot unsaid than explain so much. But Pari is still one of the better films in the horror genre produced in India. And Sharma as a producer should happily take the credit for believing in it. She should also be equally appreciated for portraying the role of a ghost and not trying to look pretty and picture-perfect.
Film: Pari
Director: Prosit Roy
Starring: Anushka Sharma, Parambrata Chatterjee, Rajat Kapoor
Rating: 3/5