Bhoot: Part One – The Haunted Ship
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar, Ashutosh Rana
Director: Bhanu Pratap Singh
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Synopsis
An abandoned ship mysteriously appears at the shores of Mumbai. Prithvi (Vicky Kaushal) is a young man who is struggling with a huge personal loss. Haunted by the memories of his wife and daughter, he takes the responsibility to unravel the mysteries of the ship. But the stories surrounding SeaBird have more truth to them than he thought. Will he come out of it alive?
Review
There’s an age-old sentiment that Bollywood cannot make horror films and by the end of this review, you’ll find out whether Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship makes any difference.
After beginning with a chilling scene, the movie proceeds to flashbacks of horror that led to SeaBird becoming a haunted ship. At the same time, Prithvi (Vicky Kaushal) is battling guilt after losing his wife (Bhumi Padnekar) and daughter. Debutant writer-director Bhanu Pratap Singh has tried his best to juxtapose the two situations. When Prithvi is tasked to probe what’s onboard the ship, he decides to take it up with utmost honesty and fight the demons inside him.
For any horror film, plenty of factors are needed to make the audience jump out of seats, including an alarming background score, convincing computer graphics (CGI) and make-up. However, to make the audience stay to notice all these, you need a good storyline, which is not present in this film.
The film barely elicits gasps of shock, let alone sending chills down the spine. At best, it will give you a few spooks, still no credits to the story. With most of the scenes concluded abruptly, the film’s almost two-hour runtime is a drag. Director Bhanu Pratap tried to keep something for the climax but would people stay till that time? I doubt.
In a horror film, if the audience is laughing in a scene that is supposed to be intense, it’s a disaster. For example, people jumped off their seats in a scene when Ashutosh Rana, who plays a scientist, starts chanting mantras to chase away ghosts. Rana doesn’t have much screen-space though.
Talking about the screen-space, Bhumi Padnekar, who plays Prithvi’s wife, has a cameo in the film.
With the lack of substance, the whole film comes to Vicky Kaushal’s shoulders, which he tries to handle and does it well for the most part. However, he succumbs to the weak storyline. The background score and cinematography spare no effort to whip up fear with variations in lighting, camera movements, and acoustics, but fail to make the audience scream with fear.
Verdict
The movie would have been better if there was a plot. Only the weak-hearted will be scared, that too isn’t guaranteed. If you have nothing better to do in life or you love Vicky Kaushal, go watch it. Otherwise, stay clear of these ghosts.