Paheli

The movie is narrated by two puppets, voiced by Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah.

A young enthusiastic Rajasthani village girl, Lachchi (Rani Mukerji) is married off to Kishan (Shah Rukh Khan), the son of the rich merchant Bhanwarlal (Anupam Kher), from a distant village. While travelling from her home to her in laws' home, which is too far away, the party stops in the middle of the road to rest, where a ghost sees Lachchi, and falls for her. Later that night, it is revealed that Kishan, who is a dutiful son, will honor his father's wish to start a new, far-away business on a predetermined auspicious date, which happens to be the very next day. Kishan turns away from his wife at night, 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 husband's sister-in-law, consoles her, empathizing on the grounds that Gajrobai's husband Sunderlal (Sunil Shetty) has also disappeared. The next day, the ghost appears in Bhanwarlal's house, having taken Kishan's shape and voice because of his own attachment to Lachchi.

Despite of pretending to be Kishan 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, self-confident version of Kishan as hers. As Kishan, the ghost befriends all of the real Kishan's 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. Lachchi and the ghost lives blissfully together for four years, during which he also keeps her in-law family happy, and solves many problems facing the family and the village. Lachchi then, becomes pregnant with the ghost's child, and the real Kishan returns to see if the rumours about his wife's pregnancy are true. He returns to find the ghost in his (Kishan's) own form. Kishan's family is unable to determine which of the doppelgangers is the real Kishan (the ghost refusing to confess). They decide to visit the king so that he can arbitrate. In the meantime, Sundarlal also returns home and apologizes to Gajrobai for his sudden disappearance for so long and reunites with his family.

On the way to the king they meet an old shepherd, Gadariya (Amitabh Bachchan) who helps them out. He gives three tests in front of the real Kishan. He says the one who can pick up hot coals will prove himself as Bhanwalal's real son, the one who can gather the sheep in time will prove himself as the real husband of the bride, and the one who can entre his water-bottle will prove himself as the real lover of the bride. Kishan tries his best to perform the first two, which the ghost did not bother to try, but when the shepherd says 'the real lover of the bride', he performs the third one and enters the water bottle, to prove his love for Lachchi. Thus, real Kishan is found out and the shepherd quickly closes his bottle so the ghost cannot come out of it. Following this revelation, Kishan throws away the bottle in the middle of the desert, and everyone returns home. Lachchi is devastated over the loss of the ghost. In the very end, it is revealed that the ghost has escaped the bottle and taken control of Kishan's 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. Thus, Lachchi starts living happily with both her real husband and her lover ghost in the same body. The puppets end the story, remarking that this is a very old folk tale.

• Shah Rukh Khan as Kishan Laal / Prem The Ghost (Dual Role)
• Rani Mukerji as Lachchi Bhanwarlal
• Anupam Kher as Bhanwar Laal, Kishan's father
• Aditi Govitrikar as Kamli
• Rajpal Yadav as Bhoja
• Dilip Prabhavalkar as Kanwar Laal, Bhanwar's brother
• Palak Jain as Anusuya, Kishan's cousin (Child artist)
• A. K. Hangal as Jeevraj
• Naseeruddin Shah as Male puppet (voice)
• Ratna Pathak Shah as Female puppet (voice)
• Amitabh Bachchan as Gadariya (special appearance)
• Juhi Chawla as Gajrobai (special appearance)
• Suniel Shetty as Sunder Laal, Kishan's brother (special appearance)
• Aasif Sheikh as Ghost

Paheli was shot entirely in Rajasthan (Jhunjhunu district) in a period of 45 days. A scene involving Bachchan and Khan on the desert was shot in Mumbai in a helipad. 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] One of the scenes was filmed at the Chand Baori.[8]

The film's soundtrack is composed and produced by M. M. Kreem with lyrics by Gulzar. The soundtrack for the film released on 9 May 2005. Track listing

• Music Label – T-Series

Paheli received many awards and nominations.

• Paheli at IMDb