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Bollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Complicated but unconvincing haunting



Film: Bhoot Chapter One: The Haunted Ship

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar, Akash Dhar, Meher Vij, Ashutosh Rana, Siddhant Kapoor, Sara Gesawat

Director: Bhanu Pratap Singh

Rating: * *

Runtime: 114 mins

Hype Media - Niloufer Quereshi



Hoping to create a new urban legend surrounding the beaching of a stray ship unhinged from its tow, Dharma and team fashion a story about possible paranormal events surrounding the unique occurrence that was seen on Juhu beach last year. An accident at best, the unsalvageable beached ship meant for the breaking yard ends up being grist for a horror movie. That’s really creative I must say and a rare thing for Bollywood. But first -timer Bhanu Pratap Singh’s ( also credited with story) writing and direction fails to drum by hysteria or tension and the fabricated horror intent fails to incite fear or terror in the hearts and minds of the audience. Unfortunately, the complicated turns in the convoluted narrative only make it seem unbelievable and incredible to the logical mind. But then the paranormal is never logical is it?



The movie begins with Prithvi( Vicky Kaushal) investigating a container ship for human trafficked cargo, finds it, rescues the contingent of young women only to be found out and get embroiled in a struggle. It’s a clumsy scene meant to establish Prithvi, the Shipping investigator’s vigilante zeal and ends up exposing him as stupid and careless instead. Cut back to memories of another time when Prithvi and Esha(Bhumi Pednekar) establish their love, get married and have a little girl. They go for a river rafting adventure holiday and Prithvi is the only one who survives the misadventure. Obviously, he is having nightmares about that traumatic past. And then the ghost ship, Seabird, gets beached and Prithvi and his bestie,( also his colleague) Riyaaz (Akash Dhar who appears to be the only actor invested in this story) are tasked with the job of removing the high -risk eyesore ( which also contains a tank load of diesel) from the always over-populated beach.



Before we get to the ship part, we already get the hint that there’s some connection between Prithvi and a possible future haunting. The rest is so convoluted that its laughable. A large part of the audience at my show were tittering away at the incredulousness of it all. While Bhanu Pratap Singh may have taken pains to construct the narrative, he fails to invest it with the energy, tension or conviction that is required to make such high-faulting ideas seem plausible. Most of the actors appear to be sleep-walking through their roles here. The absolute lack of conviction on their part makes it a thankless exercise altogether. Production design is workable and the cinematography does help create some amount of creepiness but the CGI lacks detailing and the overall direction fails to generate either chills or thrills to make this pithy ghost story, convincing.



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