Children are the most special of all species . they have a great combination of smartness , innocence & naughtiness that delights one & all . they are not an easy audience to please . so making movie for them is tough job . childrens films need to be special & ones which will remain in ones heart forever . The Harry Potter series , Koi mil gaya , Mr India , Makdeee are one of those many movies which fall in that category . anything less than that disappoints . Bhootnath falls in that latter category .
The story of a ghost & a human as been attempted many times - Casper is one such example , the underrated Chamatkar is another (my favorite) , the delightful short story by Ruskin Bond is another . In bhootnath Vivek Sharma follows the same formula of a child & a ghost who start off being an enemy then have a never ending friendship . but he fails in the execution . the problem is that the film has too much melodrama & the funny moments which are the saving grace are few & far between . there was no need to go the painful ‘Baghban’ way wich is plain soapy ( the one see in K- serials ) in a children film . infact the Director fails to explore the subject which had a lot of scope . he could have taken some more time in developing friendship between ghost & kid . He should have definitely made it lighter instead of melodramatic . Quite simply told there aren’t any moments that will linger in your heart forever & that’s where the film goes wrong .
Another problem with the movie are the song which are plain ordinary except though couple of them like Bankoo bhaiya & the kiddy song have been pitcurised well . Cinematography is ordinary & so are the dialogues . Special effects are nothing much to talk about .
But what saves the film are the performances of the entire cast . Sharukh & the underrated Priyanshu in a clichéd characters are mostly in the melodramatic scenes try to infuse life in it through a restrained performance . so is Juhi Chawla one of our most beautiful & competent actresses who shows how good she is in comedy yet again . Satish Shah & Rajpal Yadav are good too . But it is Amitabh Bhachan & the little kid who make this movie worth watching . The kid infact gives the Big B competition in each & every scene .
I went to the movie with my little sister & realized she liked the humorous parts but was getting irritated in the sobby parts which proves that the film hasn’t struck a chord with its target audience either .
The Movie remains not such a special film for a special audience