All Bakwaas!

Bhoothnath has most intresting part in Amitabh and a small kid.Amitabh Bachchan is one of the busiest actors in Bollywood today. His critics and detractors may claim he should retire but Amitabh Bachchan can still carry off a film on his shoulders alone. And at sixty-plus this is no mean achievement. Unfortunately Amitabh’s last two films were quite disastrous. Both Ram Gopal Varma Kii Aag and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom saw Amitabh Bachchan receive major flack both from the audience and the critics.

But Bhoothnath held the promise of being different. After all the key characters in the film were going to be Amitabh Bachchan and Aman Siddiqui. And Amitabh is good at bonding with kids. He was great with Yash Pathak in Baghban and also with Sweeney Khare in Cheeni Kum. Plus he had massive support from seasoned veterans such as Rajpal Yadav and Satish Shah. The lyrics are by Javed Akhtar. And considering most of the films scheduled for 2008 are action thrillers this was being labelled as a family entertainer.

Promising start

Unfortunately Bhoothnath gets lost in the wilderness. It starts off as a perfect entertainer for kids. There is even a song sung by the kids Hum to Hain Aandhi dancing adult style, which borrows heavily from Westside Story the cult Hollywood film of the ’60s. Banku (Aman) has just shifted with his parents (Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla) to this huge house in Goa. But the house is haunted by an angry ghost (Bhoothnath) whose sole aim in life is to rid the house of its inhabitants. And the ghost can be vengeful.

But the ghost is no match for Banku’s charm and innocence. Soon they develop a rapport and the two of them create a magical world of their own. Some very good special effects as Amitabh appears and disappears at will. And Aman is a fairly spontaneous actor. He should have been given better dialogues instead of the stilted dialogues he is now busy mouthing.

Aman insists he has a special friend who is not visible to anybody else. But his mother does not believe him. Then suddenly one day Juhi Chawla realises his her son is telling the truth. So Bhootnath is forced to appear in a human ‘avatar’ in front of Juhi too.


Why the film fails

At this point the film begins sloping downhill. No sorry, it begins a sharp descent downwards. The audience is treated to a long explanation about the reason for Bhoothnath’s anger and dissatisfaction. Apparently Bhoothnath was treated very shabbily by his son (played by Priyanshu) for many years. And he dies pining for his son.

We are all aware that Baghban has been the only hit from the BR camp in recent times. And it had an interesting storyline. But it seems Ravi Chopra wants to re-introduce this theme in all his films. The son Priyanshu and his NRI wife behave in such a clichéd manner that instead of creating sympathy there are waves of boredom spreading through the audience.

After seeing My Brother Nikhil, Krazzy 4 and Bhoothnath one thing is quite obvious Juhi Chawla can’t act. She has one standard stilted expression throughout this film and most other films she is seen in. There was great scope for Juhi in this film especially the scene where her son Banku is seriously injured but unfortunately she fails to make an impact.

Shah Rukh Khan as usual succeeds in making an impact even though he has a miniscule role. He disappears to sea in the first reel itself and is depicted through the film as a series of cutaways.

Considering all the rumours about the Amitabh Bachchan-Shah Rukh Khan tussle we can’t help but get a feeling the script has been drastically altered over the last two years. Yes, this film has been two years in the making. And the two titans Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan do share screen space but there is no face-off or confrontation. So in case you plan to see the film hoping for a Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham scenario, forget it, not happening.

Verdict: Buy the soon will be out DVD's or stay home and watch cricket for now.

Rating: 1.5/5

Review excerpts from filmikhabar!
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