In my encounters of ghosts on screen, I've known quite a variety -- fierce, horrific, gloomy, even goofy -- but Phillauri's well-behaved apparition is a first. She glows incandescently in the dark and floats through space in shimmering, translucent attire, like a wish-fulfilling fairy stumbling out of the pages of an exquisitely illustrated children's storybook. She speaks softly while her eyes glisten in wonderment.

Anvita Dutt writes a routine story with some 'spirit' to add fun but after the introduction of the gorgeous Anushka Sharma as Sashi, things hardly take any noticeable hilarious turn. A Canadian NRI beat boxer Kanan (Suraj Sharma) is about to marry his childhood sweetheart Anu (Mehreen Pirzada) though Kanan is not ready he obeys the order by his family. During the preparations it is learnt that Kanan is a manglik, so as per 'rasam' (tradition, ritual) to be a danger free 'khasam' (husband) of Anu, Kanan has to marry a tree (the family tries to convince him by saying even Aishwarya did it), anyways the beat boxer agrees and after his marriage to the tree, the tree is cut down.

Actress Anushka Sharma made her debut as a producer with the dark thriller NH10 and so, when it was announced that her second production venture is a comic ghost story set against the backdrop of a Punjabi wedding, I was naturally curious to see how Phillauri would be. However, to my utter disappointment, the film failed to impress in every manner, except perhaps the special effects.

It's an old school, endearing thought of romance. The kind that used to flame in books and diaries, a far cry from modern romances of Facebook and Instagram. It was a time when love seemed like a feeling reserved for ever after. Anushka Sharma's Phillauri is like a bridge between these two worlds, set generations apart. It has the subtle, sublime emotions of old world romance. It also has the spunk and verve of modern day relationships. Creative, funny, romantic, Phillauri is just as entertaining as its heart breaking. It's one deeply gratifying film about love just going on and on, till infinity.

When the friendly spirit Shashi is asked why she is stuck with the soon-to-be-married Kanan, she says, "Pata nahi, main to yahi atki hui hoon." Anshai Lal's 138-minute long Phillauri could speak for itself here. Once the one-line idea of guy-getting-married-to-spirit has been established, the film hovers around, like Shashi, from one useless scene to another which are neither funny nor interesting nor of any service to whatever goodness the film has.

Early in Phillauri, an alcohol-swilling old woman with obviously dyed, jet black hair tells her grayhead of a son that he was the result of a single peg of booze. It is a funny remark, of course, yet one you might shrug off if you think of the number of Hindi films in recent years that have seen alcohol, cigarettes, swear words and sex talk from women as the sole harbingers of progressiveness, and the number of filmmakers who have used these props to mask their deeply entrenched patriarchal notions of womanhood while pretending to be forward-thinking.

First we must clear the air. Based on its trailers, there has been deafening buzz about how much Anshai Lal's Phillauri has borrowed from Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Burton's delightful stop-motion film celebrated love and death in grand style, and while Phillauri does indeed steal its premise - where a nervous groom accidentally weds a ghost - this time, there are no resultant hi-jinks. A film one might imagine as a comedy comes without any laughs whatsoever. More than stolen similarities to the cartoon, much graver is the way the Hindi film differs from the original: it simply isn't animated enough.

A 'desi munda', living in Kaneda, landing back in Punjab for 'kudmaai' and 'shaadi'. His childhood sweetheart, who has been counting the hours to their nuptials. And a bewildered female ghost who fetches up just when the festivities get underway: these three characters make up Phillauri's opening act, which see-saws between being mildly amusing and enervating. Phillaur is a rural outpost in Punjab, where the ghost used to live nearly a century ago.

Canada return Kannan (Suraj Sharma) is getting hitched to his high school sweetheart Anu (Mehreen Pirzada) in Amritsar. Returning 3 years after his stint abroad, Kannan has picked up a few western habits which mainly includes a regular intake of weed. Smothered by the attention and overall pressure of an Indian wedding, Kannan is disinterested and Anu is upset with his casual demeanor.

Romance is the most explored genre in the Hindi film industry, but at times, few love stories leave a mark and Phillauri is surely one of them. Director Anshai Lal will take you into a dreamy world where true love has no boundaries, with this film. Kanan (Suraj Sharma), a Canada based rapper comes to India to marry his childhood sweetheart Anu (Mehreen Pirzada) but he is still in search of himself. Meanwhile, a family pandit advice Kanan and his family to make him marry a tree since, he is a Manglik, before marrying Anu.

Nothing is scarier than falling in love and having the ghosts of your memories together haunt you. But Kanan (Suraj Sharma) is experiencing a haunting of a more specific kind. He isn't bothered by memories of a former lover, but by an actual ghost-in-love from another era. Kanan marries a tree to ward off back luck before his wedding, and the tree turns out to be the resting place of Shashi (Anushka Sharma), who lived and loved there almost a hundred years ago.

Phillauri, the second production venture of Anushka Sharma, hits screens on Friday. With a "friendly ghost" aka Anushka in the film, it is a fresh take on love stories. Anshai Lal's directorial debut traces the incidents around the marriage of Kanan (Suraj Sharma) with his childhood love, Anu (Mehreen Pirzada). The twist is that Kanan marries a tree as he is a "manglik" and the ghost of Shashi (Anushka) is bound to him as she is the ghost on the tree. The film narrates two parallel love stories - that of Kanan and of Shashi.

Fox Star Studios' PHILLAURI is about the unfulfilled love of a ghost who has not attained peace after death. The film starts off with an array of dangerous (inflight) dreams of the Canada based Kanan Rajinder (Suraj Sharma), who is on his way to India to get married to his childhood sweetheart Anu (Mehreen Pirzada). After his arrival, his parents tell a 'secret' to Anu's parents stating that Kanan is a 'maanglik'. Without any frets or tension, both the families act on the advice of an astrologer and get Kanan married to an old tree, which they chop off later.