REVIEW: Bhoothnath is a letdown
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.
Next: The Turning Point and the Rating
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I saw the movie and find the second half much like baghban, however, it was a treat to watch amitabh and juhi. Does masand knows what acting is all about??? If so..Then he would have not said that juhi does not know how to act. Masand please take few lessons and then comment on her acting. Just watch cricket and stop reviewing the movies.
Totaly waste of time. I do not know whom the yash chopra is targetting. Kids, adults, new generation, nri....Confused.
no scene where you are truelly emotional. No scene where you can clap.
full waste of time.
It was definitely good movie. The person saying that juhi can't act needs to retire she looks great and acts even better!!