Review: PAKHI

Producers Of Pornography Have More Honesty

When They Make Their Films

0.5 stars

Mini Review:

Pakhi, a young girl is sold off to a bad guy who runs a brothel. In a year, she becomes the head of the girls. Another poor girl, with a young brother and sister are sold to the same bad guy. The bad guy sells the little girl to an old man. Pakhi poisons the bad guy and all the girls escape the brothel. The production values are ghastly, the acting is hilarious and you know they wanted to make an exploitative film but did not have the cojones.

Main Review:

The official synopsis says that the film is based on a harrowing true story of a ten year old being sold off to a brothel… You have seen this before in crime shows on TV and they have a better technique both in terms of the writing and filming these tales. You don’t know whether to thank the Gods that loud music takes over dialog or wait to hear dialog that is as trite as, ‘Take her to the special room.’

You have seen many movies about girls being sold off to brothels and so on (the last terrible one being a week ago: Love Sonia). None of the movies who want to exploit either the bodies of the girls ‘acting’ in the film or use the stories to shock the audience with subject that is chosen to titillate in the hope of getting to see more than just skin. This film fails to titillate on any level. Anamika Shukla who plays Pakhi has an long suffering expression all through the film, whether she is getting ready for a date with Bali, the bad guy or poisoning him. Speaking of Bali, the bad guy, Sumeet Kant Kaul literally goes deep into his role. He wears terrible leather jackets to look like he’s boss of other ridiculous bad guys, and channels his inner Gulshan Grover with super enthusiastic snarls mostly misplaced. The poor script writer perhaps was not paid enough, or the actor was unable to remember lines of dialog, hence we are forced to hear, ‘Am I Joker?!’ at least fifteen times. The worst part is, none of us sitting in the theater heard the young boy accused of calling the bad guy ‘Joker’ heard it. Edited out? Who knows!

The tea and food guy Ali looks like a schoolkid brought in to play a grown up in the high school play. And the lunch boxes he hands over to everyone look too light to contain any food. In fact when the young lad pushes the lunch box away, it clatters open and there is no food in it.

When Bali and his boys kidnap the little girl from the village fair, her young brother chases the speeding SUV and actually catches up to the car! Superman?! The little girl is first offered to a politician who says, ‘Bay-beee!’ and approaches the girl as if he were a zombie. Acting school dropouts? But the little boy and girl make up for all the bad acting by adults by overdoing the crying and the panting when they escape the bad guys. Through all the running and chasing SUVs and jumping the young lad’s hair remains shampooed and anti-gravity. And yes, budgetary constraints probably stopped them from showing why and how the older sister who was sold along with the young lad and the little girl committed suicide.

This film is a tragedy of such epic howlarious proportions. None of the cast know how to act. And all that attempted exploitation in the name of true story of a ten year old is so bad you want the film to be relegated to the bottom of a well.

(this review appears on www.nowrunning.com)