Paheli was released on 24 June 2005, and proved to be a moderate commercial success at the box office, grossing ₹32 crore worldwide. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics upon release, with praise for its production design, cinematography, costumes, and special effects; however, its story and screenplay received criticism.
Detha's story, which had earlier been adapted into the 1973 film by Mani Kaul and the 1997 Kannada film Nagamandala by T. S. Nagabharana (based on a play of the same name by Girish Karnad, the 1997 film also reportedly inspired Paheli), is folkloric in origin.[4] Though Paheli diverges from its source material and the earlier adaptations in giving the plot and its lead female character a more feminist agency.[5][6]
A young, enthusiastic Rajasthani village girl, Lachchi (Rani Mukerji), has an arranged marriage with Kishanlal (Shah Rukh Khan), the workaholic son of wealthy merchant Bhanwarlal (Anupam Kher), from a distant village. While travelling from her home to her in-laws' home, the party stops to rest at a dharamshala (spiritual dwelling), which is rumoured to be the host to 128 ghosts. At the dharamshala, a ghost sees Lachchi and is taken by her beauty. The ghost follows Lachchi and she can sense a presence and gets really scared. Later, on their marriage night, Lachchi is shocked to learn that Kishanlal, who is a dutiful son, will honour his father's wish to begin a new, far-away business on a predetermined auspicious date, which happens to be the very next day. On the night, Kishanlal turns away from his wife to finish his bookkeeping and, in the early morning hours, sets off on a business trip to Jamnagar that is to last five years. Lachchi is devastated, but Kishanlal's sister-in-law, Gajrobai (Juhi Chawla), consoles her, empathising on the grounds that Gajrobai's husband, Sunderlal (Suniel Shetty), has also disappeared without informing the family.
The ghost sees Kishanlal leaving the village and assumes a human form to speak to Kishanlal at a watering hole. The ghost learns that Kishanlal is leaving on family business for the next five years. The next day, the ghost appears in Bhanwarlal's house, having taken Kishanlal's shape and voice because of his own attachment to Lachchi. The ghost tells Bhanwarlal that during his voyage he met a sage who took great care of him. The sage was happy with his treatment and granted him a boon for five gold coins every single morning for the rest of his life. Bhanwarlal forgets everything and accepts Kishanlal back into the house. Despite pretending to be Kishanlal in front of everyone else in the house, the ghost reveals his true identity to Lachchi at night. Lachchi is thus presented with a dilemma between the representation of all of her desires in the form of the ghost who has taken the form of her real husband. She takes this newfound, sensual, magical, social, and self-confident version of Kishanlal as hers.
As Kishanlal, the ghost befriends all of the real Kishanlal's family. However, his only blunder is in his treatment of Kishanlal's servant, Bhoja (Rajpal Yadav), who is perplexed by the idea that Kishanlal has sent a letter from his business trip only to receive it himself in his own house and is offended when the ghost (who appears as Kishanlal) does not offer him a glass of water. Bhoja returns to Jamnagar and confronts the real Kishanlal on how he is back and forth from Navalgarh before himself. Kishanlal believes Bhoja to be a drunkard who never reached Navalgarh and has hence returned empty-handed without a letter or any supplies. Meanwhile, the ghost wants to make the two young camels of the house participate in a race. Bhanwarlal is against this, as he believes that Kishanlal's brother, Sunderlal, left home after being embarrassed for losing a similar race seven years ago. The ghost convinces Bhanwarlal that if he wins the race, Sunderlal might return home. At the race, the ghost uses his bag of magic tricks to confuse all the other camels and helps the house camels to win, reclaiming the lost family honour.
After two years, the real Kishanlal again sends a message home through Bhoja, but Bhoja's wife burns the letter this time as she has not forgotten the insult to Bhoja from two years ago. Lachchi and the ghost live blissfully together for four years, and Lachchi then falls pregnant with the ghost's child. The real Kishanlal returns to find out if the rumours about his wife's pregnancy are true and is shocked to find the ghost in his (Kishanlal's) own form, while Lachchi goes into early labour pain at the same time. The family initially considers the real Kishanlal to be an imposter and disregards him, but he produces many witnesses and evidences of his authenticity. However, the society, specifically the Thakurs who lost the camel race, force Bhanwarlal to ascertain the truth as they are searching for an opportunity to avenge their dishonour at the camel race by slinging mud at Bhanwarlal's family. While Lachchi gives birth to a baby girl, Lunima, Sunderlal also returns home, and apologises to Gajrobai for his disappearance for so long, and reunites with his family.
Kishanlal's family is unable to determine which of the doppelgangers is the real Kishanlal (the ghost refusing to confess) and decides to visit the raja so that he can arbitrate. On their way to the raja, Kishanlal's family meets an old shepherd, Gadariya (Amitabh Bachchan), who helps them out by placing three tests in front of the real Kishanlal. He tells everyone that the one who can lift hot coals will prove himself as Bhanwarlal's real son, the one who can gather his sheep in time will prove himself as the real husband of Lachchi, and the one who can enter his water bottle will prove himself as the real lover of Lachchi. Kishanlal tries his best to perform the first two, which the ghost does not even bother to try. When Gadariya states "the real lover of Lachchi," the ghost performs the third, impossible feat and enters the water bottle, simply to prove his love for Lachchi. In this way, the real Kishanlal is discovered, and Gadariya quickly closes his bottle so that the ghost would be unable to exit it.
Following this revelation, the real Kishanlal throws away the bottle in the middle of the desert, and everyone returns home. Lachchi is devastated over the loss of the ghost. In a twist ending, it is revealed that the ghost had already escaped from the bottle and taken possession of Kishanlal's body to live with Lachchi. While Lachchi tries to confess to her husband that the ghost had not betrayed her, the ghost exposes his identity to Lachchi by reminding her of the name they were originally going to give their daughter. Thus, Lachchi begins living happily with both her real husband and her ghost lover in the same body. The two puppets end the story, remarking that this is a very old folk tale.
In 2004, Palekar went to Shah Rukh Khan with a request for a hearing. After listening to the script, Khan asked Palekar if he could produce it as well as star in it. According to Khan, Paheli is a woman's liberation film that deals with the issues of marriage and asks whether a woman must stay with a man only due to marriage and not out of love.[7]Paheli was shot entirely in Rajasthan (Jhunjhunu district) over a period of 45 days. A scene involving Bachchan and Khan in the desert was shot in Mumbai on a helipad. One of the scenes was filmed at the Hadi Rani Kund (often confused with Chand Baori) of Todaraisingh.
Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave it 4/5 stars and said: "On the whole, Paheli is one of the finest films produced in recent times. A film like this proves yet again that we don't need to seek inspiration from outsiders [read Hollywood], when Indian literature is rich enough to provide us with captivating stories."[8]Raja Sen from Rediff.com called it "A breathtaking dream!", and said: "First things first, this is the best-looking Indian film in a very long time, and ranks up there with the finest ever. Palekar has crafted a delectable fairytale that is incredibly well-shot. Ravi K. Chandran's cinematography is spellbinding as he casts us into the fabulous sandscapes of Rajasthan with fluid harmony. Each frame of the film is picture-perfect, marinated in intoxicating colour. Watching Paheli is quite an experience, and it's from the very opening shot of the film that its sheer, magical palette overwhelms us."[9] It was featured in The Ten Best Indian Films of 2005 list by Rediff.com, ranked third.[10]
Box office
Paheli saw 90% occupancy during its opening.[11] The film had a total net gross of ₹187.5 million (US$2.2 million) in India and an additional US$3.63 million in the overseas market. It was declared an "average" in India, but a "hit" abroad.[12][13] It proved to be a safe and profitable venture for its distributors.[14]
The film's soundtrack is composed and produced by M. M. Kreem with lyrics by Gulzar. The soundtrack for the film released on 6 May 2005. The song "Dheere Jalna" is based on "Nadira Dhinna" from Okariki Okaru (2003).[15]
^Martins, Constantino; Damásio, Manuel (15 August 2016). Seduction in Popular Culture, Psychology, and Philosophy. IGI Global. p. 140. ISBN978-1-5225-0526-6. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2020. Detha's ostensibly simple folktale published in of the 1970s, with its multi-layered texture, has become a favorite for film makers: two veteran film directors - Mani Kaul (who made Duvidha in 1973) and T.S. Nagabharana (made Nagamandala in Kannada, in 1997) before Palekar-Gokhale remade it as Paheli in 2005.
