Don’t get me wrong. Bhootnath is a lovely movie. It’s the type of children’s horror movie where the initial scenes are scary, but afterwards, the images of the ghost popping out seem to make you laugh more than they make you shiver. So in short, it’s an out-and-out children’s horror film. If you have a child who prefers funny ghost movies, take them to the picture, but at the same time, you can’t help but wonder how Bhootnath is an emotional melodrama for nearly three-quarters of the film.
Some emotion is to be expected of course, mainly over the bonding of the ghost(Amitabh Bachchan) and his little naughty friend Banku(Aman Siddiqui). The first few scenes introduce a scary old ghost, followed by mischievious Banku and his escapades in his school and his new house. The songs all have irregular intervals, but they are nice, even if Hum To Hain Aandhi made me squirm in my theatre seat. The music was good, but god, we kids don’t have so much attitude inside us!
Soon Banku manges to make the old and cranky Bhootnath his best friend, convinced that he’s an angel, not a ghost like Bhootnath says. After that, it’s generally comedy with the usual fooling people rigaromole.
Bhootnath is a feel-good movie. You just have to smile broadly at the movie’s end. Since it’s a children’s film, the ending is pretty predictable. However, when the film starts progressing towards the end, the movie starts becoming a bit too mushy. You can cry at the sad story about how the ghost’s family wanted to leave the house for glorious America, and let all the memories be forgotten. You can also wince as you see the ghost falling to his death and going after his son, only to find himself outside his body.
But instead of a funny scene in which the Bhooth and Banku force his evil son to stop trying to sell the property, and apologise by coming to the shraadh(memorial ceremony) of his father, you instead have an emotional Priyanshu Chatterjee crying at his folly and clutching his mother’s potrait, after which Bhootnath recieves his mukti(i.e. passport to heaven). Banku despairs for a whole night. And Bhootnath jumps out of a tree.
Really, Bhootnath is a good movie, there’s nothing bad about it. It’s just that you may want less of the tears and more of the comedy. It is a children’s film after all. I didn’t expect the whole fuss about performing your father’s last rites and all. It had a good cast though, with lots of funny scenes provided by Rajpal Yadav as Anthony the drunkard and Satish Shah as the food loving principal of Banku’s school. Shahrukh is mentioned to have a’ very special apperance’, but his role has many significant scenes.
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