PHILLAURI (U/A)
Director: Anshai Lal
Cast: Anushka Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh, Suraj Sharma, Mehreen Pirzada, Manav Vij
Running time: 138 minutes
After many years, here is a mainstream Hindi film in the theatres which offers an absolutely new movie-going experience, one you’ll never have an inkling of from the promos. In fact, it hides the big idea not only in its trailer but in its entire marketing campaign so as not to drive away the young urban viewers who in the past have shown no real interest in our own history or culture or even ethos.
First-time director Anshai Lal’s Phillauri, written by Anvita Dutt, is a very cleverly cool-coated period romance that would have definitely been a much superior film if it only played out in the past but its silences and pauses would have been completely lost in today’s hashtag cacophony if made on its own. Hence #ShashiWasThere and the story of Phillauri is narrated with the device of a friendly ghost.
The 2017 portion of it is a little overdone. It’s a Canada boy Kanan (Suraj Sharma) flying in to marry a Punjabi girl, his childhood romance Anu (Mehreen Pirzada), and the families are those super-loud and super-rich folks where the Dadi starts drinking even before brushing her teeth in the morning and the DJ can’t wait to start scratching in the evening.
There’s one little hitch. According to the astrologer, the boy is manglik and has to first marry a tree before marrying the girl. Now, where did we last hear that before? Anyway, that tree happens to be the home of Shashi (Anushka Sharma), the innocuous and free-flowing and shimmering ghost who can only be seen and heard by her new husband, Kanan.
This today portion is just an excuse to sell the movie — a friendly ghost is still as cool as Casper — and throw back to the pre-Independence section in Jalandhar’s Phillaur where Shashi was a poet secretly sending her verses to a much-read periodical under the name of ‘Phillauri’. Punjabi Charulata, you say? She’s lonely too, reduced to do household chores by her doctor elder brother (the brilliant Manav Vij), but the neighbourhood charmer Roop Lal (Diljit Dosanjh) is soon smitten by her.
This Roop-Shashi love story is soaked in purity and passion and is the real heart of Phillauri. She writes and he sings and on the beautiful wings of their music and lyrics their romance flies in the sepia-touched rustic terrain. What goes wrong is best discovered at the theatres but like all great love stories, the tragedy (that’s no spoiler; otherwise why would she be a bhatakti hui aatma?) lends an epic touch to their tale.
The Kanan-Anu love story, on the other hand, never really gets going and that’s because Suraj Sharma, in his first proper Bollywood film, is extremely annoying. He tries too hard to be funny and that really costs the movie. The first half which has a lot of the now scenes keeps stalling and the physical comedy just doesn’t work. Mehreen Pirzada, though, is a complete natural and someone to watch out for.
Phillauri more than makes up in the second half as Anushka and Diljit get together to give us an adorably gorgeous couple with their performances never going out of tune even for a moment. The honesty in Diljit’s eyes and in his dialogue delivery lend the love story class and dignity while every little emotion runs on Anushka’s face as freely as Shashi’s spirit. Their close-ups actually make the film as you can’t stop gaping at them.
If there are awards for the film made with the most love and care, Phillauri will win them all. Kudos to Anushka Sharma the producer again, after NH10. Vishal Sinha’s cinematography and Meenal Agarwal’s production design are so good that every frame, especially in the period portions, is a painting you can hang at home. And the only thing that betters the images is the music. The songs by Shashwat Sachdev and Jasleen Royal are terrific, especially Dum dum, Sahiba and Din shagna da.
The first hour can be a little trying but there is a lot to smile at and lot of tears to shed in the last hour of the film. You may love or sneer at the last scene but by then both the Phillauris have made a place in your heart. All that glitters is sometimes gold.
Pratim D. Gupta
I loved Phillauri because... Tell t2@abp.in
ALSO RELEASED
ANAARKALI OF AARAH (A)
Director: Avinash Das
Cast: Swara Bhaskar, Sanjay Mishra, Pankaj Tripathi
Swara Bhaskar — who is fast making a name for doing hatke films — plays an erotic singer-dancer called Anaarkali who hails from Bihar’s Aarah. Infamous for her double-meaning songs, Anaarkali finds herself in trouble when she takes on the might of a local politician. Released with almost zero publicity, the makers will be hoping that the trailer — in which Swara does the bold walk and talk — gets in the numbers.
