And I thought there is still some pride left in Bollywood. The way the most original, different & daring director of the industry has blatantly copied hollywood’s most famous horror movie Exorcist with huge star cast and still manages to bore me to death is matter of great shame.
Let’s start from the start. Ram Gopal Varma was one of the few director left in bollywood whom I admired for their orignality and considering this man was the director of Raat the best horror movie India has produced and you can understand why I expected an Indian exorcist in terms of quality but what I got is an indianised version of Exorcist which is nowhere even close to the original even though Ramu has even copied whole scenes where he could.
Horror is a genre that requires creativity & imagination like no other genre. But to make horror movie with happy ending still follows set patterns even in hollywood. But what makes on film different from other is the treatment. This is very well prooved by the movie Possessed which had almost the same storyline as the Exorcist. The other factor is the climax. Every great horror or thriller has great climaxes, which remain with you long after you have forgotten most of the film. Like in Exorcist or remember Sixth Sense or even in Ramu’s ’Kaun’. Anybody who’s reading this review please do watch ’The Ring’ a new british horror movie whenever you get get your hands to it and you’ll understand.
So even if he couldn’t have made a different story atleast the treatment could have been fresh. Remember Raaz a copy of What lies Beneath. But the fresh faces and the way the music was made part of the movie made it worth watching if only once. I have critisized Raaz in every oppurtunity but at least it had the feel of a horror movie and at some points it even managed to give you the chills & thrills. I often say Raaz sucked but now I wonder what should I say about Bhoot. Saying Bhoot sucked would be a great injustice to Raaz.
Almost every successful horror movie even in hollywood is made with fresh faces, I wonder if Ramu pondered why. The reason is simple it is difficult to digest a hunk getting afraid and also the stars distract the audience. An Ajay devgan who just played a Cold hearted don in company & Bhagat Singh could give the best performances of his life but still he is Ajay devgan. Throughout the movie Ajay Devgan looked anything but frightened. If he is not frightened how can we be. Remember in Border when Akshaye Khanna throws up or when in the climax he looks back, he left an impression that still lasts today, people understood his dilemma. Now put Sunny deol in his place and you can undertand what I am talking about.
Urmilla can look frightened coz women in bollywood are always frightened balas(girls). But the problem was she never got a long enough scene to show that. Those who have seen Ramu’s Kaun would agree with me. Urmilla had almost similar role, though no bhoot was involved but it scared the hell out of audience. The problem is repeated in the scenes where urmilla does a Linda Blair. To make a fast movie Ramu should have edited Ajay Devgan’s role or Rekha’s or Tanuja’s or Nana patekar’s not Urmilla’s. The Scene where Rekha tells Fardeen Khan about his deeds, I don’t know why on earth urmilla was not asked to say that dialogue. If there was one person who could have saved us from this mess was Urmilla and i’m no great fan of Urmilla. This is based on her performances in Kaun & PTKK. Linda Blair performance in Exorcist is legendary because she played the bhoot & a helpless child in the same instance. Surprisingly this part was completely missing from Urmilla’s role. Ramu committed the same mistake most bollywood directors do, the take a huge starcast and then ruin the film by giving every star his due footage. Another reason why fresh faces are taken horror films.
Also Ramu forgot that Exorcist was not just about scaring people, it had three different stories of its three main characters running simultaneously which end at the same point. One was of the bhoot & a failed exorcism, second was of the girl whose parents are estranged and finall of the hero another father who finally saves the girl. A wonderfully scripted & directed with no big stars. So what we have is a thinly scripted version with a pale climax with huge starcast given as may be a compensation.
I’ve met many people who thought Bhoot was a wonderfully made film. I asked them was it scary? Most of them said may be a couple of scenes but it was a good movie with wonderful background score and good performances. A scary movie with at most a couple of scary scenes? How can it be a good movie. Then there were those who were genuinely scared, most of them were first timers or second timers (after Raaz) to the horror movies because most of them didn’t watch hollywood’s horror movies leave alone Exorcist. But those who did could not bring themelves to think that Ramu made a bad movie after all Ramu is one of the few they could genuinely think of as good indian director. After hearing them I could not help but to think of my fellow MS mate Tribal_Chief’s review of Ramu’s ’Company’ where he sid that the movie was like a glamourised well made documentary with no heart. May be that was missing too in Bhoot coz even badly made hollywood inspired film’s with heart had work wonders in bollywood.
I’m not saying nobody can like bhoot, but I did’nt like it. Neither am I saying that nobody will be scared coz some people did. All i’m saying is that this is just another hollywood inspired film and part of the creativity blackhole gripping bollywood.