Paheli

Paheli (Devanagari: पहेली, Riddle) is a Bollywood fantasy film, which released in India on 24 June 2005. It is a remake of the 1973 Hindi movie Duvidha. 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. Paheli is based on the short story written by Vijayadan Detha in Rajasthani language and tells the story of a wife (Rani Mukerji) who is left by her husband (Shah Rukh Khan) and visited by a ghost, disguised as her husband, who is in love with her and takes her husband's place. Sunil Shetty, Juhi Chawla, Rajpal Yadav and Amitabh Bachchan have supporting roles in the film. The story has been previously adapted into film, Duvidha (1973) by Mani Kaul.

The movie opened the ninth Zimbabwe International Film Festival at the Libertie Cinema Complex in Harare. 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).

Paheli (1977 film)

Paheli (Hindi: पहेली; translation: riddle) is a 1977 Bollywood film produced by Tarachand Barjatya for Rajshri Productions. This family drama was directed by Prashant Nanda with Satyajeet and Nameeta Chandra playing the lead characters.

Arun Govil, Nameeta Chandra, Poornima Jayaram, Neena Mahapatra and Anita Singh were debutants to Bollywood screen in this film and Suresh Wadkar as playback singer.

Plot

Brij Mohan (Nitin Sethi) leaves his home in village to live in Bombay. His mother (Durga Khote) prefers to stay alone in their palatial home. Brij gets married. His wife gives birth and passes away soon after. After few years, Brij is an established businessman and his son Montu (Satyajeet) is studying final year in school. He asks Montu to visit his grandmother which he agrees reluctantly provided his friends accompany him. The group is besotted with many problems when they reach the village. His friends return to Bombay, leaving Montu with his grandmother. Montu becomes friends with a precocious village girl Gauri (Nameeta Chandra), an orphan living with her cruel aunt, and two equally cruel cousin sisters. Montu and Gauri's friendship blossoms and they meet regularly. He also meets a struggling farmer Balram (Arun Govil), his mother (Leela Mishra), and his fiancee Kanak (Abha Dhulia). Balram would like to go to city, earn money for his marriage which his mother refuses. Against his expectations, Montu finds village life interesting and promises his grandmother to return the next year.