Phobia Hindi Movie Review

Phobia, a movie released without any fanfare holds you on the edge of your seat right till the very end. A taut psychological thriller that springs in lot of surprises, Phobia scare you as the drama unfolds. This genre is finding it really tough to frighten the audience as the treatment is more or less cliched these days.
Its here that Phobia scores. Without giving much importance for the ghostly aspect, the film through sound, lighting, performance and drama makes you scared and thats a big plus point.
There are spoilers in the next couple of paragraphs, so please skip if you haven't watched the film. Mahek played by a brilliant Radhika Apte is an artist. Some unfortunate incidents in her life has a disturbing effect on her later on. She is suffering from agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder characterized by anxiety symptoms in reaction to situations where the sufferer perceives the environment to be dangerous, uncomfortable or unsafe.
Treatments could not do anything good on her that forces Mahek's boyfriend to find an apartment for her that would allow her to fight the problem on her own. But she starts experiencing strange things at the new home. What happens next is a nerve cracking and spine chilling thriller that is neatly portrayed by director Pavan Kirpalani.
There are many questions that are left unanswered in the screenplay. Also, the way in which Mahek foresee things in advance has not been properly conveyed and lacks clarity. But these are all minor faults that need not be cared much as Phobia turns out to be an intense thriller that can scare you and makes for a intriguing watch right from the start till the final scene is complete.
Radhika Apte is the soul of the film giving a stellar performance. I should say she has singlehandedly taken the film to another level. Almost close to ninety percent of the film has the character of Mahek under focus and its not a mean task when the primary focus of the film is on a single character. The actor in her made sure that Phobia don't suffer because of a bad performance.
Only three or four characters are there apart from Mahek. Among them, her boyfriend, her chirpy female neighbour and a male neighbour are the important ones and the actors who performed these roles were adequate.
Technically a sound film with brilliant background score, cinematography and sound design. A very good story with a neat screenplay, Phobia has an excellent first half followed by a somewhat matching latter half in a screenplay that has few glitches that were left open.
Barring these few things in the script that lacked clarity, Phobia overall is a neat thriller that plays on the fear factor of the protagonist and on her mind with success. I am going with three and a half out of five and a thumbs up to Pavan and his team.
Rating - 3.5 / 5