Bhoothnath is a children’s movie (at least the first half). And it should be seen as such. It would not do to go about dissecting it and comparing it with some other friendly-neighbourhood-ghost films made in the past (I have been reading reviews in the Net, you see). If we put such analyses out of our mind, then we truly enjoy it. All this is regarding the first half of the film. In the second half, it stops behaving like a children’s film. Things go beyond childhood, youth and reaches the verge of foundering in adulthood. In other words, the second half is unbearable even for adults who think they have seen everything. The message is probably significant, but probably to stretch the film to its complete two (or something) hours, someone has unnecessarily pulled in a lot of tear-jerking sequences – quite uncalled for in a film intended for children. Luckily, my three-year-old could not make out much of it, so we were spared the torture of explaining to him that if he does not take care of his parents, both he and his parents will be in deep difficulties in this world and the next.

Amitabh Bachhan (his blog here) is an amazing actor (the whole world knows that, since years ago, so why am I articulating it here?). He takes versatility to a different level.

Speaking of Amitabhji and not mentioning Cheeni Kum is Not Fair (In that case I would need to mention a number of other films as well, but this is a more recent favourite of mine). This is an exceptional movie, exceptional performances by Amitabhji, Tabu, Paresh Rawal and the little girl, Swini Khera. The fact is that, had any other set of actors been assigned the task that these extremely talented people very convincingly did, the film could had been a disaster.

But I digress from the topic. As I was saying, I recommend Bhoothnath– the first half – to children, and the second half to women who like a good weep.

Enjoy!