July 26, 2008 12:26:01 PM IST Rachana, Bollywood Trade News Network

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After giving hair-raising horror flicks like RAAT, BHOOT, VAASTU SHASTRA Ramu is all set to scare the living daylights out of us with one more spooky outing PHOONK, a movie with black magic as its theme. Unlike RAAT and BHOOT which talked about the existence of spirits, PHOONK upholds to question one's faith and belief systems.

Says the director ''RAAT & BHOOT were more about demonic possession. It is a spirit of a dead person possessing a living person. Where as PHOONK is about Black Magic. It is about using certain evil forces in a ritualistic pattern to harm someone or cause destruction to the property or a person's health etc.''

Ramu's kind of films are well known for its unusual concepts and this time around the maverick director chose an out of the ordinary and very hostile topic 'Black Magic'. We wonder what made the director resort to such topic. What is the inspiration source for PHOONK? Is PHOONK based on real-life incidents? Answers Ramu with utter calmness ''Not really, not necessarily specific. But the black magic ritual is conducted by the people who want to hurt you for a certain grievance they have against you, which is a fundamental basis or reason of black magic so to that extent I think it's based on reality, not necessarily to do with the specific characters."

Not only his films but even the titles of his movies are quite peculiar and have always generated curiosity. Talking about his forthcoming release PHOONK which talks about black magic, its rudiments, its rituals etc, the title sounds pretty uncanny. When we asked the director as to why he preferred PHOONK as his title and how does the title submerges with the theme of the film? He revealed ''PHOONK is derived from the word called 'Jhaadphoonk', it's a term used in a certain ritual which they probably try to counter the effect of Black magic.''What's its significance? ''PHOONK refers to the blow, it's a black magic story and so in that way it is related to the ritual of black magic.''

While his earlier horror flicks - RAAT, BHOOT, VAASTU SHASTRA, etc. had well-known faces like Revathi, Urmila Matondkar and Sushmita Sen to reckon with, PHOONK has relatively unknown faces to the viewers of Bollywood (though it stars south superstar Sudeep and MUMBAI SALSA fame Amruta Khanvilkar in the leads). ''I think it's just the subject matter, I wanted to have a family which will look extremely believable. My viewers could easily relate and identify with the characters. And the black magic being the pulling factor, everything I wanted it to be realistic.''

Since the time PHOONK trailers are out Ahsaas Channa, the girl who plays the character Raksha and daughter of Sudeep & Amruta in the film, has been making headlines for her bloodcurdling performance in the film. When we asked Ramu regarding the same how difficult was it to get those right expressions from a child artiste, he had to say ''No it was not difficult''he further adds ''I don't think so, by the time you cast, already you would have auditioned them and you know their acting capabilities, so they are not lesser than in any which way.''

PHOONK has a very impact full punch line which reads 'It's superstition till it happens to you'. How has Ramu set the relation between black magic and superstition? To this he said ''See, anything which does not fall in the purview of science and rational / logical explanation and if you still believe than it is superstition. Superstition is the belief in supernatural things. It has nothing to do with the happening. If you believe that something bad will happen than that's superstition. Because superstition has no logical explanation. Superstition has more to do with your belief systems.''

Apart from enlightening on the hard-hitting subject of black magic, is Ramu's PHOONK also providing solution to eradicate the same? ''No I am not providing any solution out here; it's a dramatic representation of a man's psychological drama, a non-believer when he is subjected to something which defies logic. There are so many educated and high society people who believe in the existence of black magic, as they experience or they hear about others experience. There are also people who don't believe in it. So, PHOONK is the story of a man who doesn't believe in this but he is subjected to certain happenings and occurrences which shatter his belief systems and in the lack of rational explanation can he stand by his conviction, that's the point.''