May 12, 2008...8:41 pm
Bhootnath!
Bhoothnath sings, dances, cleans house and arranges furniture. He is a friendly ghost played by Amitabh Bachchan. Little Banku and his family start living in his bungalow despite warnings from taxi drivers, neighbours and unknown people. Initially he tries to scare them away but later becomes friends with the naughty and fearless Banku. It’s silly but funny and lovable. Reminds me that innocence is still not lost. No problem so far. The problems start after the interval when the film goes the Baghban way. Why is Bhootnath a Bhoot? A neglectful son who was sent abroad to study, decided to stay there and didn’t return to his parents. Most Indian parents know this story by heart. For decades we have watched it happen. It is not as big a deal as it was made out to be. The only real villainous part was that he wanted to sell the house which he should not have against the wishes of his father. This track was melodramatic and boring. Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, play Banku’s parents in the film. In the end, Banku performs a puja and his best friend Bhootnath gets mukti. The kid however performs the puja without understanding the meaning of mukti. Kids will enjoy this film more than the parents. Rajpal Yadav and Satish Shah did well in their small roles. Priyanshu Chatterjee plays the role of the villainous son. Nothing much to write about. Shahrukh’s role was too small for him to leave a mark of any kind. Amitabh Bachchan and the child actor acted well. They pretty much carry the film by themselves. I really enjoyed the first half of the film.
These days more than promotions, controversies help raise the popularity of the films. The story with Bhootnath doesn’t seem to be different. A novelist Pankaj Rai has sent a legal notice to BR Films accusing Ravi Chopra and director Vivek Sharma of lifting the story idea from Ruskin Bond’s Ghost Trouble. Rai claims that the book’s film translation rights lie with him. He claims that his rights are registered with AMPTPP and he had announced his plans to make a movie on the book in 2003 and has even recorded a song for it. Let us see how much money Pankaj Rai can make out of this.
4 Comments
May 13, 2008 at 5:04 am
Hmmm. sounds like Casper with a bollywood twist…. hope there is some good humour though!
May 13, 2008 at 11:54 am
I saw the movie. It was just about ok. The second half was really boring with that “samay ka pahiya chalta hai” song playing all the time in the background.
May 13, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Interestingly enough, Amitabh Bachchan was promoting this in the UK and was interviewed on the BBC where he told them off - again - for calling the film industry Bollywood. But it was amazing to see how star-struck his interviewers - not British Asians - were!
May 21, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I have seen Bhootnath, script is good and other things are also fantastic except second half, B.R. Chopra tried to show too much emotional and sentimental scenes, I feel that is not required. He could show same script having sense of humour also. I can say then 100% it would have been superhit movie.
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