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End game
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While `Bhoot' is a hit, the film could have been much better had director Ramgopal Varma kept a tighter reign on the resolution.
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ENSEMBLE CAST: The film was greatly helped by the A-list actors.
RAMGOPAL VARMA must be a confused man today - he went on record saying he would prefer a bad film to fail and if it were to succeed he would be confused. And his latest film Bhoot, a supernatural thriller has gone on to become a big fat hit.
While Bhoot does not classify as a rank bad film, it suffers from a fairly common problem - the unravelling in the latter part of movie. It is a rare film and an exceptionally skilled storyteller who is firmly in control from the first frame to the last - M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and most of Brian De Palma's movies come to mind.
Bhoot, like Aks, has an incredibly promising first half, which unfortunately comes apart post interval and rapidly descends into the realms of the ludicrous. One gets the feeling that the director lost control and just wanted to end the movie any which way.
Sound is an important part of a horror film particularly how one uses silence, location sound and the sound of terror. In Raat, a much more accomplished horror film from Varma; he increased location sound to indicate a scene change over. In Bhoot the background score with creep chords galore dominates and takes over the film.
While content is most definitely king, style and the star cast do help. In Bhoot Varma has been lucky in managing to get an ensemble cast and being the king of style, some of the frames and editing are visually intriguing. However, even in the technical aspects, Varma should have kept in mind, the fact that shots, frames, and characters should have a rationale. Just introducing an element for effect is quite pointless and serves no purpose apart from irritating the audience.
The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock's best movies can be watched over and over again and you would never feel that a bit of dialogue was unnecessary or a frame was just there because Hitchcock felt it looked good. The conversation between Marion Crane and Norman Bates in the motel lobby with the stuffed birds looking down is a perfect example of that.
While there are problems with Bhoot, one should applaud Varma for going where no man - apart from tacky Ramsay creations - has dared to go. Making a horror movie without songs and the obligatory lady in the white sari with open hair and tinkling anklets, requires a degree of chutzpah that Varma seems to have an unlimited supply of.
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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Metro Plus
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Hyderabad
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