Right from Scene 1, Shot 1 I knew what I was going to expect. The very first scene of this movie shows two people trespassing into an abandoned home and being scared away by a ghost. Um, sounds familiar awe, come one! You watched it in Casper, didn't you? Yep, so did I.
Bhoothnath is a movie that loosely inspires itself from the 1995 Hollywood movie Casper. It's about a ghost (Amitabh Bachchan), who doesn't allow anyone inside his home but fails every attempt to scare a little boy out of the house. Soon, he discovers that this boy isn't afraid of him at all and then they develop friendship. Then there is this mother (played by Juhi Chawla), a principal (Satish Shah) and a variety of other supporting actors and yes, I almost forgot to tell you, there is Shahrukh Khan as well. So to all those people out there who love these star studded no-substance movies welcome aboard.
The basic problem of Bhoothnath is that the spine of the story is very very flaccid. It's simply about this little boy and a ghost who do nothing but develop intense love for each other. They become friends, hang out, take part in sports and drama contests and well, that's about it. Can't tell you a great deal of things because the film simply deals with more event-oriented storytelling. Then there are these characters who do not develop at all, there are comedians who fail every attempt to make you laugh (though Juhi is funny at times, those clichéd jokes simply take away from humour from the situation.) In fact, the film is so clichéd that watching the first 20 minutes will tell you most of the story, but then that's where things become a bit tricky, and believe it or not, I grew more and more inquisitive as the film started taking a bloody Baghban twist. Surprised, don't be it's BR Films trademark.
I went absolutely stunned when the back story about Mr AB becoming a ghost started unfolding. It's about these helpless parents whose son has left them, and believe it or not, that the mother DIES in grief and father (Bachchan) meets an accident (well, falls off a flight of stairs) and dies. (Though I loved the scene when he discovers he's dead.) Then he decides to keep everyone off his property and that's the part supposed to scare us.
Character-wise, Mr Bachchan is fine. Well, over acted a bit here and there, but one thing is for sure that he is able to get into any character. He fits in this one as well. He still manages to make us adore him with unwashed clothes (the movies says so) and unfiled nails with hideous silver paint on his face. Juhi Chawla is opening up to experimental roles and glad she accepted this part. She has fully justified her character and has shown that's she'd good as a mom too. The Shahrukh-Juhi chemistry works this time around too, but I simply did not understand the reason to have SRK do that role.
For Heaven's sake, just picture SRK standing in the background and only his hands visible in the frame. What a waste. Thankfully he did not charge a penny for that role because if he would've, it would make his worse choice of character in his entire career. Delnaz Paul, Priyanshu Chaterjee and Rajpal Yadav too are such a waste of paychecks. Satish Shah is rather irritating than funny. Rajpal Yadav sucks big time and we're not even told what happens to him in the end.
However, the good thing is that we have yet another Darsheel Safary in the block. Little kid charms us all the way through the movie. The best moments of the film are credits to him. The scene where he challenges Nath to arrange the furniture was simply adorable and the other one when he's looking up in the sky and calling out to Bhoothnath.
Overall, there's nothing great you'd want to watch in this movie. Your kids (mind it, very very small kids with absolutely no sense of judgement) may find it nice, but even 12/13 years will find this movie going to the nuts. It's predictable, it doesn't make use of the comic potential the plot has to offer, big names are attached to the film but their presence does not add any substance to the movie at all. You'll simply hate some scenes for the rest of your life. Music is so-so. Vishal Shekhar flunk again after Tashan. Javed Akthar had given some nice compositions but I think they're a bit over the top for a kid's movie. Production design (ageing dept) sucks big times, especially the first time we're shown this aged building with brightly polished wooden door and shining door knobs. Background score is thrilling at times but couldn't understand the reason why they composed one particular score very identical to that of Baghban's. There was definitely more room for special effects (you'll love a leaves animation sequence) though what's been done feels right in the place.
The director definitely needs to come up with something better next time because with such a big production house, all the best choices of actors and still a big hole persists in the whole thing. I don't know what went wrong but Bhoothnath failed to impress me.
6/10 for you Mr. Bachchan. Been a big fan of yours.
3 out of 12 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
