Indeed, debutant director
Vivek Sharma harks back to an artless innocence to tell the tale of a benign
ghost who comes to life.
The film's most delectable
aspect is the rapport that grows between the ghost (Amitabh Bachchan) and the
fearless little boy (Aman Siddiqui) who comes to live in the dead man's
mansion, takes on the ghost and even gets the better of him. Both Bachchan and
the boy have a ball. So do we, in portions.
The film's best scenes
feature the Big B with the incredibly confident and polished Aman. The pair
just takes over the screen and makes you forget the narrative's
all-too-apparent flaws.
There are plot-holes large
enough to make 'Bhootnath' an uneasy bumpy ride. But Amitabh and Aman make you
smile as they frolic, sing, banter and deliver some really heartwarming
homilies on the quality of existence.
Of late, the Big B has
been repeatedly seen in interactive situations with little kids. After Ayesha
Kapoor in 'Black', Rucha Vaidya in 'Ek Ajnabee' and Sweeni Khare in 'Cheeni
Kum', he brings a sense of cross-generation harmony with another acutely cute
and young co-star.
While the kids in the
other three films were traumatized to one degree or another, Aman plays a
normal, bratty but sensitive kid, yet another addition to the growing brood of
brilliant child actors in Bollywood after Darsheel Safary in 'Taare Zameen Par'.
The director lets the
child be. He imposes no adult perceptions on
him. The narration consequently carries an air of old-world naivete to the end.
There are no breaks for romantic songs, item numbers and other modern day
quirks and compromises.
'Bhootnath' glides forward
with the unconscious skill of a little boat in a tranquil lake, which knows
where it wants to go without creating any stress within the pace of the grace.
And what would Bhootnath
be without the Big B, sportingly sharing lines, visuals, songs and drama with a
child who gives him tit for tat, and more?
The rapport between the
wandering spirit and the spirited kid could have fallen apart were it not for
the cool camaraderie between them. While one is unschooled in acting therefore
totally spontaneous, the other is so skilled and schooled that he readily
redefines what is cool.
The duo apart, the other
characters are largely sketchy. Rajpal Yadav with shoe-polish on his face plays
one of the stereotypical Goan drunkards.
Priyanshu Chatterjee as
the dead man's ungrateful son struggles to give substance to an under-written
role. His character brings into play the age-old conflict between old-world
values where a home was considered much more than financial asset, and the new
generation which thinks property can be easily bought. Known for their movies
that convey moral messages, producers B.R. and Ravi Chopra couldn't let go of
the chance to make a social statement.
Juhi Chawla as the
flustered mom is sweet and angelic. But she is unable to add anything to the
drama beyond a point.
Interestingly, Shah Rukh Khan in a guest appearance clearly tries to
improvise on the badly written dialogues mainly in scenes where he pokes fun at
his wife's cooking.
Shah Rukh and Juhi continue
to share a quaint if not crackling chemistry. But the chemistry here is clearly
between the ghost of a 65-year-old and a 10-year-old child who knows he's up
against a formidable adversary.
Or maybe he doesn't.
Sometimes the motivations underlying spontaneity can be the very opposite of
fear.
'Bhootnath' tells us ghosts are not scary, they
can be fun. At the end of the blithe film we believe the director even if we
don't belive in ghosts at all.
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