Phobia movie review: A psychological thriller that scares the hell out of you
It’s very hard to remember a film in Bollywood based on a subject as unexplored as Agoraphobia. What is rarer is the kind of justice director Pavan Kripalani has done with the horror genre.
Phobia is a psychological thriller that has enough elements to scare the hell out of you. With the right mix of fear, shock, mystery and some humour, it’s a spookfest that will leave you stunned.
Mehak (Radhika Apte) is an artist who develops fear for open spaces after she survives a sexual assault by a taxi driver. Her aggravating situation creates problems for her elder sister and nephew with whom she shares the flat.
Her friend Shaan (Satyadeep Mishra) then shifts her to a separate flat where she berfriends her neighbour Nikki (Yashashiwini). Even as Mehak tries hard to tackle her fear, she starts having weird experiences in her new apartment. She finds a dairy of the flat’s last occupant and concludes that she was murdered by none other than her creepy neighbour Manu (Ankur Vikal), who was also her boyfriend. She soon starts hallucinating.
As lines between reality and imagination start to blur, it becomes very difficult to distinguish between what is true and what a figment of the protagonist’s imagination. It is this dilemma that the film plays well on leaving the audience on the edge of their seats.
Phobia sticks to the psychological thriller genre and churns out enough nerve wrecking moments in its 94-minute journey. Very seldom does it wade into supernatural category, though a few subtle references are left unexplained, like Mehak’s ability to see the future.
Phobia has many standard familiar tropes of a run-off-the-mill horror flick but it is the treatment that makes it stand out.
Director Kripalani has worked closely on the details and has brewed the set with elements of genuine horror- dimly-lit interiors of the flat, blood-curdling sounds emanating from its walls, a bloodied body crawling out of bathtub, lights crackling and flickering ominously are amongst many chilling moments of the film.
Though a few irritants do crop up, letting loose its tautness post-interval. Still, these little discrepancies have been done away by Radhika Apte’s stunning performance.
She is the pillar around which Phobia revolves; she will shock you with her vulnerability. Her paranoia, captured brilliantly, has the power to deeply affect the audience to the extent that she could easily give you the creeps even while trying to step out of door to dump the garbage.
Satyadeep Mishras’s portrayal as Mehek’s friend in turmoil is both spot-on and heart breaking as he never gives up hope even as Mehek becomes a living wreck.
If you are game for psychological drama, Phobia is a film not to be missed.