Bhoothnath: Movie Review
Director: Vivek Sharma
Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Shahrukh Khan and Aman Siddiqui
After Taare Zameen Par, which made kids dance to their tunes, we have debutant director Nikhil Kumar’s movie Bhootnath to hit the screens. Bhoothnath is about the relationship between Casper inspired ghost Amitabh Bachchan and kid Aman Sidiqui. The first half of the movie is targeted at kids and the second melodramatic half is incidentally also for kids.Story of Bhoothnath
A big, unattended ,uninhabited spooky house is haunted by a ghost named Kadernath ( Amitabh Bachchan). The ghost is vengeful and wouldn’t allow anybody to share his house as his fond memories are etched in the house, Nath Villa. But Kadernath is disturbed and furious when a family movies into the house. The family comprises of Banku ( Aman Sidiqqui ), his shy mother ( Juhi Chawla) and pony-tailed daddy ( Shah Rukh Khan).
The ghost is angry with the new inmates of Nath Villa and plans to drive them away by his bhoothiya antics. He comes across Banku and tries his tricks on him, but instead of scaring Banku he amuses him which results in friendship between Banku and Kedarnath and Banku lovingly starts calling Kedarnath as Bhootnath.
All is well in the Bhootnath villa until Kedarnath’s son Priyanshu Chatterjee returns from US to sell off Nath Villa and then the film goes back in time, becomes soggy and melodramatic. The director doesn’t think twice before turning the second half into a Baghban type melodrama.
Kids will surely enjoy the encounters between Banku and Bhootnath and their histrionics in the first half. The way the awesome twosome plays pranks in school and also become heroes in disguise is definitely entertaining. The second half with all those family values I guess went as a bouncer over the heads of kids and it might have left them wondering what happened to Bhootnath. One child beside me in the movie-plex started crying, “Mamma Bhootnath ko ka hua?”
Aman Sidiqui as Banku is perfect and gives an outstanding performance, Amitabh as the loving ghost with sunken eyes looks perfect and manipulates your emotions with his histrionics. Juhi Chawla proves why she is still in the industry despite of marriage with her good performance. Shahrukh Khan is a treat for SRK lovers and I guess he also had some magic powers as we could see a pony-tailed SRK in one scene and in another the pony-tail does a vanishing act, over all he is brilliant.
Although Vivek Sharma needs to hone is directorial skills he is a good narrator. The film has good special effects. Cinematography by Vishnu Rao is good. The soundtrack of the movie is its biggest flaw, I wonder what happened to Vishal-Shekhar when they were composing tunes for this movie.
Don’t go expecting a Taare Zameen Par act from the movie and you might actually like it, but be sure to leave the theatre after the first half if you are watching this movie with your kids as it would prove to be a big embarrassment for you and confusion for your little one.
