Back to Bollywood!

In an era of corporate Bollywood, movies also look mechanical many a times. Neither do they have the appeal which the Hollywood ones do, for all the reasons, nor do they have the inherent Bollywood charm these days. Thus, a film like Bhoothnath becomes special, as irrespective of all the new age Bollywood paraphernalia attached to it, the film is a celebration of the Bollywood spirit, in every way. It has a range of emotions, corresponding to the masalas of Hindi cinema, it has the twists in the tale (some forced, but some not), it has entertainment, it has stars and it has a message.

While the music may very obviously be considered as the weak link of the film, and could have been better, it is still less taxing while one watches it in the film, as opposed to a standalone hearing. But then there is humour, there is star power, there is a little bit of adventure, not in the treatment, but at a more fundamental conceptual level, and then there are dollops of emotions. As far as the star cast is concerned, this is perhaps one of the best ones in recent times, and not just as stars, but more in terms of the suitable actors. Senior B justifies in everyway why scripts should be written for him even today, and even if they aren’t how he can work wonders with them. Aman Siddiqui, the kid is adorable on screen and fantastic as a performer. As a personal observation, unlike a lot of screen kids of today (barring Darsheel of course) his over smartness on screen isn’t annoying and apart from him, the director should be given full credit for the same, and a lot of other things, but more about it later. As for King Khan, it is just a great experience to watch him on screen, yet again. While his character doesn’t really need anyone special, he makes the character special. Apart from his other special appearances, this one is more special coz of his co-star Juhi Chawla. The chemistry is just fantastic and not a single ‘family’ scene in the film lets one feel that the trio belong to different families in real life. As for Juhi’s performance, after Aaja Nachle and recently U Me aur Hum, this is the third film which makes you feel the real dearth of beautiful, elegant and graceful females who are performers as well in today’s cinema. She is superb, as the wife, as the mother, even as the endorser of Kurkure, and is a sheer delight to watch on screen.

Director Vivek Sharma has almost managed to tell a simple story simply. There is most definitely the unwanted Baghban angle to it. But then, almost every successful film has made such, sometimes wanted and most of the times unwanted appearances in the future films made by the director or the production house. The Baghban track of course does tarnish the feel of the film which is fabulous before it happens, but the rest of the film nice enough to ignore this aspect. The underlying message of taking the positive from anything, even a ghost and the concept of letting go in order to achieve Mukti are beautifully brought out in the film and that is the victory of the director.

Overall a nice family film for the holiday season I am not too sure whether the sequel in the making would again be a good film like Bhoothnath or end up being yet another product like most of the films of today. But Bhoothnath the film has a character and individuality; irrespective of the brand placements, it doesn’t look like a string of advertisements, and finally is a nice film, regardless of the bad Baghban enforcement in the plot.