Movie Review | The 'Bhoot' effect does not return with 'Bhoot Returns'

This weekend, on the block is a leaf from the RGV bouquet – Bhoot Returns, which we think is a sequel to his mildly successful Urmila Matonkar and Ajay Devgan starrer Bhoot in 2003. Ram Gopal Varma's catalogue of films can be classified in basic two categories, good and bad. Statutory warning - Bhoot Returns (in the 3D format) can be and should be listed as the worst of the lot!

 

The films revolves around the Awasthi family comprised of Tarun Awasthi (Satya fame J. D. Chakravarthy) who moves into a new house with wife Namrata played by Manisha Koirala, who comes on screen after a long time, their son Taman and daughter Nimmi (Alayana Sharma). The family is soon joined by Tarun’s sister.

 

The film plunges directly into the genre with a voice over telling the audience that there are some houses that are haunted and here is one such house where the ghost of Shabbu dwells. And what's peculiar is that this ‘bhoot’ likes kids.

 

 

The film moves on a predicted premise - Nimmi finds a doll in the new house, a gift from her friend, Shabbu, who is visible only to her. Soon uncanny things begin to happen. Unexplained knocks on the door, creepy movement of furniture, weird sounds that leave the parents and the kids’ visiting aunt perplexed. The family’s servant suggests of conducting ‘pooja and hawan’, suspecting the presence of a ‘bhoot’ in the house, which is easily put down by Tarun. Manisha, perhaps having watched Paranormal Activity, decides to install CCTV cameras inside the house and what the footage reveals spooks the living daylights out of everyone’s mind. By the time they decide to vacate the house, it’s too late. Following these unusual and bizarre activities in the house, one day, the servant disappears without a trace. The next day, so does their daughter.

 

There’s no place or spot or angle that Ram Gopal Varma hasn’t shot through. The ceiling fan, the wall hanging, the wash basin: nobody is spared and everything becomes the viewer’s point – of – view (POV), and that’s not always a good thing. Production design is a little gaudy, and the house that the film was shot in could have been done up better to seem more like a suspiciously inauspicious place to live in. Sandeep Chowta’s background sound is grating and makes you cringe more than any of the attempts at horror on screen. The editing is sloppy and the cinematography is far from path breaking.

 

Manisha Koirala does try hard to come across as naturally scared but she turns on the terrified-hyper act time and again. J. D. Chakravarthi tries his best as Tarun, but fails to impress. Alayana Sharma as Nimmi is alright as Tarun’s daughter with innocence. Madhu Shalini as the ‘bua’ performs without difficulty though a little hard to see on screen.

 

Team Adgully gives the not – so - scary Bhoot Returns a disappointing 2 stars out of 5. While the cast may have done the best they could, the punctured script and bad direction takes everyone down. | By Ankita Tanna [ankita(at)adgully.com]