Bhootnath is kiddish rather than being a movie for kids. If you want to watch Big B making faces, rather than emoting, watch Bhootnath. Bhootnath disappoints grossly and add one more to the disappointing flops that Bollywood has generated this year.
The story: It is about a child’s encounter with the friendly ghost of the house. As you know it, the Bhoot is only visible by the child and the ghost is always there to help the kid in every scene except for one. The kid (Banku) has a doting mom in the form of Juhi Chawla and a dad in the form of SRK(who seems to have given just three odd days to shoot the movie). Shahrukh Khan works in a cruise liner and mostly interacts with the kid by phone.
One comes to know about the ghost’s sad story which coincides with Baghban released some years ago. Mr. Bhootnath was a doting father whose son(Priyanshu) became busy with his career in the west and couldn’t call his parents on time. I fail to understand what is a cardinal sin if the boy goes to the US and cannot get time to speak to his parents. It is not his fault, is it? Ultimately, the boy comes back with his wife (with a fake ‘n’ funny US accent) and they decide to sell of the traditional house, which Big B does not want because the house echoes of sentiments of growing years. While trying to stop his son from leaving, Mr. Nath has a bad fall, and dies to get a prefix, Bhooth before Nath. The rest of the movie is about a hawan to free the haunted spirit trapped inside Bhootnath.
Technicalities:
Bhoothnath has major flaws in its script, screenplay and editing, so glaring that an average movie goer would be able to find out. For instance, there is one scene in which Big B fails to stop the kid from falling from a flight of stairs because he is in spirit, but then has the power to move the boy from here to there through his ghostly prowess.
The initial scenes do not quite bring out the prankster in Banku.Bhootnath suffers from very poor editing. A person sitting to me grimaced saying there is no link between some scenes. He was right, because some of the scenes did not have a sequence and looked like being dropped from nowhere. Debutant director Vivek Sharma looks helpless, and it is obvious that he has depended more on amateur special effects.
The less said about the songs, the better. The nastier part is that songs crop up at odd occasions and accelerate the boredom. If Banku is happy, there is a song, if Banku is sad, there is a song and if Banku is slapped,there is yet another song.
Plus points:
It is a welcome sight to see Juhi Chawla on-screen after a long time. Her famous chirpiness is very evident and she lights up the screen with her presence. Priyanshu looks perfectly cast as Big B’s son.
Performances: Bhootnath is probably the easiest role Big B has played. All he has to do is look weird and make faces. The boy Aman Siddiqui is promising and has performed to expectations. Juhi Chawla looks beautiful and shows flashes of brilliance. Watch her as she stifles her laughter when the principal’s face is doused with ink, or the shock in her eyes, when her son is hospitalized. We’d definitely like to see more of Juhi Chawla. One feels sad for Rajpal Yadav reduced to a pitiful role which gets him more sniggers than laughs. Satish Shah is downright irritating.
The verdict: A subject like Bhootnath could have been much more entertaining and funnier. Just when it looks like a good scene is in the waiting, the characters break into an irritating song. For a much better Bollywood movie in this genre, watch SRK’s Chamatkar.
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