Nagamandala Movie Duvidha By

It is a remake of the 1973 Hindi movie Duvidha by Mani Kaul based on the short story written by Vijayadan Detha in Rajasthani and was partially inspired by the 1997 Kannada movie Nagamandala based on the play of same name by Girish Karnad.

It was directed by Amol Palekar and produced by Juhi Chawla, Aziz Mirza, Sanjiv Chawla and Shah Rukh Khan, who also plays the male lead.

It tells the story of a wife ( Rani Mukerji ) whose husband ( Shah Rukh Khan ) goes on a business trip as is the practice of business communities, and visited by a ghost, disguised as her husband, who is in love with her and takes her husbands place.

It was also screened at both the Sundance Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The working title of the movie was Ghost Ka Dost (translates to Friend of a Ghost ).

Kishan is a dutiful son who honors his fathers wish to start a new, far-away business on a predetermined auspicious date, which happens to be the day after the wedding ceremony.

On the wedding night, Kishan turns away from his wife to finish his bookkeeping, and in the early morning hours sets off on a business trip that is to last five years.

Lachchi is devastated; Gajrobai ( Juhi Chawla ), her husbands sister-in-law, consoles her, empathizing on the grounds that Gajrobais husband Sunderlal ( Sunil Shetty ) has also disappeared.

The next day, a ghost appears, having taken Kishans shape and voice because of his own attachment to Lachchi.

She takes this newfound, sensual, magical, social, self-confident version of Kishan as hers.

As Kishan, the ghost befriends all of the real Kishans family and keeps Bhanwarlal happy by providing him with magical, possibly illusory, gold coins.

His only blunder is in his treatment of the messenger Bhoja, who is perplexed by the idea that Kishan has sent a letter from his business trip only to receive it himself in his own house and offended when the ghost (who appears as Kishan) does not offer him a drink of water.

Lachchis bliss goes on until four years later when she is pregnant and the real Kishan returns to see if the rumours about his wifes pregnancy are true.

Kishans family is unable to determine which of the doppelgangers is the real Kishan (the ghost refusing to confess).

He asks the real son of Bhanwarlal to pick up hot coals, asks the real husband to gather the sheep, and asks Lachchis real paramour to enter a water-bottle.

In the very end, it is revealed that the ghost has escaped the bottle and taken control of Kishans body to live with her.

By now Lachchi has given birth to a daughter, Looni Ma, by whom the ghost exposes his identity to Lachchi.

The puppets end the story, remarking that this is a very old folk tale.

In 2004, Amol 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 womans 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.

One of the scenes was filmed at the Chand Baori.

A film like this proves yet again that we dont need to seek inspiration from outsiders read Hollywood, when Indian literature is rich enough to provide us with captivating stories.

Amol Palekar has crafted a delectable fairytale that is incredibly well-shot.

Ravi K Chandrans cinematography is spellbinding as he casts us into the fabulous sandscapes of Rajasthan with fluid harmony.

Full Movie Nagamandala