GLS University

Faculty of Law, GLS Law College

Assignment
On
Principles of Psychology Paper– I

Name of the Assignment: MOVIE REVIEW

Student’s Name: Hetvi Hitesh Patel Faculty Name: Dr. Riddhita Parikh

Semester: I Division: A

Subject Code: I.L.B.A 212101104 Roll No.: 27

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I, PATEL HETVI, hereby express my gratitude to Dr. RIDDHITA PARIKH, professor, GLS law
university for giving me the opportunity to work on the project entitled ‘MOVIE REVIEW-
PHOBIA’.

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 DECLARATION

I, PATEL HETVI, hereby declare that the project entitled “PHOBIA- MOVIE REVIEW”
submitted to GLS LAW UNIVERSITY is a record of original work done.

- PATEL HETVI

SEMESTER I

2021-26 BA. LLB. [HONS.]

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 Pawan Kripalani’s Phobia looks like the scary love child of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and Todd
Haynes’ Safe. From the former, we get the young woman (Radhika Apte’s Mehek) alone in an
apartment, the older sister, the young woman’s gradually disintegrating mind, her not-easily-
explained attitude towards men and sex, and imagery involving hands. From Safe, we get the
woman with agoraphobia, a doctor not quite sure how to cure her, and the suggestion that she move
into her own space – or is it a cage? Phobia opens, aptly, with a quote from Kafka, “A cage went in
search of a bird.” A library’s worth of dissertations can be written connecting the quote and the film.
Without a bird, a cage has no purpose, no meaning. Cruel though it sounds, a cage needs a bird in
order to be a cage, to fulfil its destiny as a cage. Is Mehek – who finds herself unable to step out of
her home after a sexual assault – the bird who longs to fly away from her situation? Or is she the
cage, seeking answers that she can trap in her paintings? (She’s an artist.) Who? Why? What?
When? How? More than bird or cage, Phobia may be about the “search.”

Phobia is the rare film that’s invested in all kinds of horror. There’s standard-issue physical horror –
clichés of the genre like black cats and disorienting reflections in mirrors, along with bone-rattling
sound/editing effects. There’s psychological horror – surreal dream-images; the manifestation of a
mental breakdown through external effects, like a spider climbing a wall with exaggerated click-
clacking sounds that suggest it’s wearing stilettos; one can even see the house Mehek moves into as a
Charlie Kaufman representation of herself, for after the assault, she is in “a new place.” There’s
supernatural horror – a séance, and is that a ghost climbing out of the bathtub? And even ontological
horror, where the rug of “reality” is pulled neatly from under our feet. By the end, we may have
witnessed not Mehek’s journey so much as the flashback of one of her paintings, how it came to be.

But Phobia works even without all this mental masturbation, because it follows time-tested
suspense/horror clichés to the T. Despite disturbing experiences, Mehek continues to be stupid and
stays alone – if she left, there’d be no movie. And there are quotes from crowd-pleasing films.
There’s a bit of The Eyes of Laura Mars, with future events manifesting themselves in the present.
There’s also a bit from Rear Window, involving amateur investigation of a supposedly murderous
neighbour. Were it not for the abstract ending (and the superior-sounding title, which will surely cage
this film in urban multiplexes), the average horror-film fan will find quite a bit to enjoy. I laughed at
the cheapo, atmosphere-puncturing inscription on the T-shirt that Nikki (a perky Yashaswani

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Dayama) wears: Bhoot Raja Baahar Aaja. Nikki lives next door to Mehek and becomes the indulgent
Grace Kelly to Mehak’s confined-in-a-room James Stewart. Whenever Nikki is around, Phobia is
almost playful. I laughed again when she pointedly calls Shaan “Uncle.” Shaan (played by
Satyadeep Mishra, who makes us care for a borderline-prick) is Mehek’s maybe/maybe-not
boyfriend, but he’s certainly not the kind of guy who likes being reminded of his age.

Shaan could be a cage himself. He wants to trap Mehek into a relationship, and she won’t commit
(not even to casual sex), so he has his way by somehow willing the universe to unleash an attack on
her, so he can cage her in a flat and finally be with her. Seen through this prism, Phobia is a chilling
riposte to Bollywood’s apparent embrace of female characters bursting out of their cages, in films
like Jai Gangajal and Mardaani. Here, all women end up as failures in some way. The
psychotherapist fails. (She seems to think that grocery shopping and splurging at malls is the
therapy all women need.) Nikki ends up battered and bloody. The girl who made a statement by
running away from her boyfriend (Ankur Vikal, making you wish you never end up with a
neighbour like him) returns and succumbs to his oily charms. Mehek’s sister doesn’t seem to be
bothered about Mehek after a point. Mehek herself is a question-mark.

The cautious ending makes it seem like she’s liberated from her condition, but we don’t know if
she’s really free, if she’s slayed her demons (the film is set during demon-slaying Diwali time),
whether she’s won her “jee-tod ladaai” between the real and the imagined, or even if she’s sexually
free. The song that played in the cab when she was assaulted is “Gandi baat,” from R… Rajkumar.
Is she going to hear it in her head every time a man comes near her? Is sex always going to
be… gandi baat?

My favourite moment – in a performance filled with potential favourite moments – came when
Shaan begins to dance and tries to lead Mehek outside the apartment. Apte makes you see a woman
who wants to face her fears and yet, is terrified of facing those fears. Thanks to Phobia, she may
finally be the bird who flew away from the cage of minor roles.

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