Here is the review for the movie Bhoothnath Returns. Watch out this space for more updates!
On the whole, BHOOTHNATH RETURNS is made with noble intentions and the message it conveys resonates in the second hour, although those looking for entertainment may find it lacking in the second half. Watch it for some wonderful moments and superior performances by Bachchan Sr., Boman Irani and the child artist Parth Bhalerao.
Bhoothnath Returns belongs almost entirely to Parth Bhalerao. In his first Hindi film, the teenager delivers an exceptionally effortless performance. The ghost isn’t meaty enough to test a seasoned actor like Amitabh Bachchan. Bhoothnath Returns is a leisurely stroll in the park for him. Boman Irani’s mean politician caricature isn’t menacing enough to give anybody sleepless nights, leave alone a ghost who rocks. Will Bhoothnath Returns be able to bhooth-capture the box office? It might not lose its deposit, but it does not look like it is in with a chance to romp home with a big margin.
While the first half is refreshingly devoid of needless drama, director Tiwari makes up for all that lost time. The climax is loaded with melodrama and tears. But the credit has to go to Akhrot and Bhoothnath for making the twists palatable. Watch this for Bhalerao and Bachchan.
The biggest problem with Bhoothnath is its long length of 155 minutes which could have been easily chopped by 30 minutes or so. Not all songs are entertaining but among the ones that you'll enjoy is Party to banti hai. Though the Yo Yo Honey Singh number that comes at the end is a total waste. The film also has some interesting message for people to go out and vote and what better timing as it's in the heat of elections in India. There is no doubt that Bhoothnath will entertain cine-goers.. It's entertainment .. Bachchan style!
For the most part, barring perhaps the last half hour of the film, its most shamelessly manipulative moments are tempered with deliberate humour. What’s heartening about this film is that it seems to be fully aware that it is being presented as an ‘election product’, and it seems to take that in its stride and play it as its strength. Talk about shrewd politics.
But the whole is less than the sum of its parts. The pace slackens, the ghost-and-boy rap begins to drag, and there are far too many threads hanging — a Harry Potteresque compact between ‘bhootlings’ and earthlings, and a clean-the-system-of-all-ills-romp, overlaid with some weepiness and an item-song-in-the-slums full of blonde babes dancing alongside the Big B and the small boy. Finally it was neither funny nor serious enough: neither fully ghostly nor ghastly, but somewhere in between.
At 160-minutes of screen time, it stops being a fun, endearing story and turns into a classroom lecture on voting rights. There's even a musical lesson on poverty, crime against women, communalism, and much else. Part of the problem lies in his inability to filter out the unnecessary. Instead, we are left extremely fatigued by the lengthy monologues towards the second-half, and left unconnected by Bhoothnath’s pursuits for an idealistic world. If Nitesh had blanked out Bhoothnath, and retained his baritone voice instead, at least for majority of the movie, it would’ve been more effective. So, what could have been a good movie, turned into something hugely disappointing.
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