Marrying art and commerce... Review on Paheli

King Khan has been daring to be different for a while now. This is yet another such venture, this time surprisingly joining hands with an arty director, who also used to be a much-loved actor.

The story is quite interesting -- ghost falls in love with just-married damsel and uses the opportunity when her groom goes away the day after the wedding. It takes on his form, but doesn't cheat the girl; they have a great romance and the stage is set for an interesting climax when the actual husband returns. Through this fantasy kind of story, the pains of womenfolk are brought out subtly.

When the director is non-mainstream and decides to collaborate with a commercial superstar, usually the scales tilt in the favour of the latter. But here, Palekar does only a few compromises. The pace is slow though; the short story probably required only about one and a half hours. Songs, despite the pleasant picturisation and being interwoven with the narration, are one too many. A few comical situations pep up the proceedings. The end is slightly dampening rather than surprising.

The charm of Rajasthan's heat and dust is captured beautifully. But the rustic dialect is a bit too hard on the pan-Indian audience. Romance, like most other things in the movie, is realistic -- a welcome change from running around the trees with scenic shots in a foreign country and a thousand dancers in the background.

Khan's efforts aren't really cent percent and hence ends up not being as good as in the recent Swades. Still, it's quite a change from his usual trashy fare, especially the father-fearing 'bania'. Mukherji does her part well as expected. Kher and Chawla excel in underplaying their roles. For comedy, we have the familiar Yadav and the fresh Prabhawalkar. The former drowns even Khan's charismatic presence. The ubiquitous Bachchan does fine in a small role, but a couple of other known faces are wasted.

The songs (Kreem) are very melodious while Gulzar pitches in with his earthy https://lyrics. The background score (Shrivastava) is just average. Choreography turns miserable when you see a few steps lifted from other movies. Cinematography and art direction paint a really pretty picture. Special effects are overdone, shining only in the dual role sequences.

Palekar succeeds in providing some meaningful entertainment, also tickling the mind. Khan too is satisfied with a turn from the ordinary. A part of the audience also go home happy.

[3.5 stars]