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Paheli is based on the short story written by Vijayadan Detha and tells the story of a wife (Rani Mukerji) who is left by her husband (Shah Rukh Khan) and visited by a ghost, disguised as her husband, who is in love with her and takes her husband's place. The story has been previously adapted into film, Duvidha (1973). Paheli was nominated as India's official entry to the 79th Academy Awards.
Critic Reviews (2)
"Watching Paheli is quite an experience, and it's from the very opening shot of the film that its sheer, magical palette overwhelms us. It is so easy to mess a film like this up, but Amol Palekar does remarkably well with Paheli. It's a leisurely told and naïve dream, and could simply descend into caricature at any point, but never crosses that line. It's a charming, warm romance capable of gifting the most sceptical of us a big, beaming smile. Children will love it, and the affection involved in the film's creation is infectiously visible to the audience. And the twist at the end raises astonishingly dark questions about fairytale metaphors, and sends you home thinking. Smiling, but thinking."Read full review ↗
"Paheli is one of the finest films produced in the recent times. A film like this proves yet again that we don't need to seek inspiration from outsiders [read Hollywood], when the Indian literature is rich enough to provide us with captivating stories."Read full review ↗
Cast & Crew
Cast
- Shah Rukh Khan · Prem
- Rani Mukerji · Lachchi
- Anupam Kher · Bhanwarlal, Kishanlal's father
- Rajpal Yadav · Bhoja
- Dilip Prabhavalkar · Kanwarlal, Bhanwarlal's brother
- Juhi Chawla · Gajrobai
- Sunil Shetty · Sunderlal, Kishanlal's brother
- Palak Jain · a cousin of Kishanlal (Child artist)
- A. K. Hangal · Jeevraj
- Naseeruddin Shah · Male Puppet (voice)
- Amitabh Bachchan · Gadariya
- Ratna Pathak Shah · Female puppet (voice)
- Amitabh Shukla
Director
Screenplay
Cinematography
Producer
Details
- Release Date
- 24 June 2005
- Runtime
- 141 min
- Language
- Hindi
User Ratings & Reviews
3 ratings from the community
Community Reviews (2)
This movie was excellent, first movie to be probably be not influenced by Hollywood, I think that is one of the several things that made me want to see this movie. Excellent in all aspects and I hope to see Bollywood doing similar things in the future. Shah Rukh and Rani once again proved their work to be at the highest level of all celebrities. I own the DVD now and I watch every once in awhile, the dialogues were great, as is the scenery, the costumes, the screenplay, the songs and everyone in the movie. It definitely put a spell on me, such a beautiful love story. Amazingly portrayed, I would definitely read the book.
Apparently in this terrific Amol Palekar film it was Shahrukh's character which was romancing Rani but it wasn't Shahrukh who was romancing Rani. The film, which blends a horror comedy with romance, is about a village in Rajasthan where the businessman husband of a woman is out for expanding the business and making money for the household for five years, and meanwhile a ghost who has fallen for the woman disguises himself as her husband and makes love with her. This film established Shahrukh Khan as a romance hero in a special way- because he can turn the pink lights on even in the most unconventional settings. Of course the film hasn't come up with a generally good romantic environment, but the way this 'ghost' loves is charming.
