Bhoot

’Bhoot’ or ’Ghosts’.

What do we mean by it? Someone who is dead for a while but not asleep. Someone still marching around us in dead state haunting us to death. We are scared of death and thus to anything that is related to death. Bhoot is nothing but an element of this scary factor. Bhoot is not the only one thing one has to get scared of. There are other elements too. Like coming face to face with death when you aren’t ready for it, thought of losing someone very precious, finding oneself heading towards no where, your hands tied tightly, mouth plastered and yourself locked in a small dark tank for days and finding no way to get out, etc, etc.... There can be many more if we think of the worst that can happen to us.

Now let the other scaring factors be and lets turn towards the movie ’Bhoot’.

The Environment:

An attractive room on the 12th floor of a building in midst of Bombay city. A dreadful history of this room states that a woman named Manjeet had commited sucide by falling down from the balcony of the room along with her son. The room has been kept thirsty of civilization since then. Yes, the dead woman’s mirror and her son’s toy doll have been left behind. As rumours go in background the woman was half mad. Neighbours & broker seem to be afraid of the madness of the house

In search of a domain:

A couple, Vishal (Ajay Devgun) & Swati (Urmila) walk in as new residents of this house. Everything seems to go cool for the couple except a watchman who keeps trying to be nasty with Swati. In the course of time, Swati comes to know of the secret of the house which her hubby has been keeping away from her. After this, Vishal sees things going terribly wrong with his wife. Swati starts sleep walking, seeing things in broad daylight as well as the nights. Things ain’t the same anymore for the couple. The wife is going mad and the hubby is concerned of his beloved’s state of mind. Then something wierd happens which I won’t say here. But by now, Manjeet has already found a domain in Swati’s body.

The proceedings:

To investigate a wierd case Inspector Qureshi (Nana Patekar) enters the scene. Vishal contacts a psychatrist (Victor Banerjee) who himself is on the edge of emotions with his daughter dieing of cancer. The psychatrist tries to relate Swati’s state with all known cases he has handled.

Now Vishal starts believing his home maid’s (Seema Biswas) words, that say Swati has got possesed by Manjeet’s ghost. Vishal now meets a medium who can talk to ghosts (Rekha). Then unfolds the mystry of Manjeet’s death.

Most haunting scenes:

# One day as the psychatrist is checking Swati, he hears his daughter’s voice from Swati saying ’’Mujhe aapki yaad aa rahi hai papa!’’ His phone rings when the other side utters, ’’Your daughter has died just minutes back.’’

That one was my favourite scene in the movie.

Then there are many more which make Bhoot special. I won’t narrate them here in detail as this can cause you to loose intrest while watching the flick.

# The first night of the couple in the house.

# Swati’s first encounter with Manjeet.

# Swati’s day dreams. But to her horror, these aren’t dreams.

# Vishal’s first encounter with a possesed Swati.

# Rekha’s and then Tanuja’s entry in the movie.

# Nana Patekar’s punch lines.

The Performances:

Atlast Urmila finds her way out of her character in ’Kaun’. She gives some totally different expressions, we haven’t seen on her face after Kaun. She has played Swati putting in honest efforts. What we get to watch is a seasoned performance from Urmila. She literally carries Bhoot on her able shoulders. But let’s see how long this hangover is going to affect her further roles.

Ajay Devgan plays Vishal very well. He shows the dillema of a husband with his expressions. Ajay hasn’t got a meaty role in the movie, but excels in the scenes assigned to him.

Seema Biswas plays the home maid showing a tint of madness on her face. Her ’kaam wali bai’ is hillarious as well as scary at times. Rekha haunts gracefully in her short role with her looks and voice. Tanuja has a stare to kill. Victor Banerjee is one actor who we need a lot in the industry. His psychatrist makes a mark. Nana Patekar’s Inspector Qureshi does nothing but provides a lill’ bit of relief from the tension packed atmosphere in the movie. Fardeen Khan doesn’t impress much in his short role. The ghostess (dun know her name) does give some haunting looks enough to scare the audience.

The Technical haunts:

Music composers Salim-Sulaiman & Sound Designer Dwarak Warrier make Bhoot what it has to be. Scary. The background score has got something to it to scare the ghosts out of you. In fact this background score is the only reason in the movie to get scared. Strong performances alone cannot execute the mission to scare successfully.

The camerawork by the cinematographer Vishal Sinha has a apeeal. His work of art makes the movie more chilling. His camerawork at the start while the credits flash is the best example.

On direction front, this isn’t the best of Ram Gopal Verma. He could have done this even better. Mostly in the second half where the chilly scenes which we enjoy in the first half are nearly invisible. The first half has been handled with a dash of chills. But the second half goes a lill’ bit haywire with the introduction of many characters. But still RGV’s honest effort towards scaring the audience is undeniable.

An overall look:

Bhoot is surely worth a dekho for it’s different approach. We don’t see wierdly funny masks & white sarees floating in the wind. Nor do we see songs popping in from nowhere. Even the runtime of the movie is two hours which plays a major pro for the movie. Bhoot would have gone bananas if it would have stretched for three hours. The performances & background score are surely the ones to be looked forward to while watching the movie. Not better than Kaun but surely a good movie. And if you listen to a word from me, ’’Don’t keep your expectations sky high and you will surely enjoy.’’