Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

sumanbarthakursmailbox He sings and dances, arranges the furniture, and even puts the school's lunchbox-raiding principal in place. Yes, that's Bhoothnath for you, the friendly ghost played by Amitabh Bachchan, in director Vivek Sharma's film by the same name. After a failed attempt at scaring away little Banku and his family who have moved into his sprawling Goa bungalow, Bhoothnath becomes buddies with the precocious kid. So far, not too many complaints. It's silly and childish yes, but also very watchable. Problems arise somewhere beyond the half-way mark of Bhoothnath when this kids-friendly entertainer turns into something of a rona-dhona heavy Baghbaan rehash. You sink into your seat and cringe with embarrassment as our teary-eyed ghost goes into flashback mode and bores us with those sad stories of his neglectful son. Despite its fairly basic plot and predictable screenplay, for the most part Bhoothnath works just fine as a children's film. It is after all a formula that never fails when done even half right. Although it's nothing you haven't seen before, the adventures of Banku and Bhooth are enjoyable to watch largely because the chemistry between Bachchan and child actor Aman Siddique is so riveting. So whether they're pulling a gag on the school principal, or devouring "aloo parathas" that Banku's mother is struggling to prepare, it's this unlikely friendship between boy and ghost that is the film's main draw. And that's why it hurts as hell when writer-director Vivek Sharma steers his ship in an entirely different direction as the film enters its third act. Melodramatic and needless, the track involving Bhoothnath's back-story is a cumbersome bore. Even Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, who play Banku's parents in the film, look embarrassed to be participating in such sentimental silliness. For me Chhota Chetan and Mr India are the ultimate children's films, at least to come out of India . Bhoothnath, sadly doesn't compare to either. For one, both Chhota Chetan and Mr India were involving and engaging stories that had heart. Bhoothnath, seen in its entirety, is a confused film at best. Sure it's got its moments, but it's hardly the kind of film you'll remember years from now. The other reason Bhoothnath doesn't come anywhere close to a film like Mr India is because it simply doesn't push the envelope as far as special effects are concerned. 20 years after Mr Indiaand the best Bhoothnath does is show us furniture flying around a room, Bachchan walking in and out of walls, a child's arm elongating to ridiculous proportions, and some gimmicks involving dried leaves. Such a shame, one would have expected more! Of the cast, Shah Rukh Khan in a special appearance looks uninspired and unhappy to be there, while the usually dependable Juhi Chawla tends to over-act for no reason. Some genuinely funny moments are provided by Rajpal Yadav who plays the local drunk, but of course the film belongs to Bachchan and little fellow Aman Siddique who give the film its best moments. Siddique is sharp and on-the-ball and he turns in a sincere performance, but if I were to pick the one single thing about Bhoothnath that's superb, then that would be Amitabh Bachchan. He's perfectly cast, he's uninhibited as the scruffy, irritable ghost, and even in the film's tedious bits he's the only reason you stay in your seats. Take your kids to the film, but make sure you don't stay longer than intermission!

silvan-desouza Kiddie films are so difficult to make, yet some people think it's easy Show a school, show a naughty child, show some forced emotional angles, some songs like MERA BUDDY and ready Show some emotional scenes like he falling off a staircaseHere Ravi Chopra go a step furtherShow a kiddish Bhoot, who instead of frightening the kid acts like a funny Bhoot, This was meant to be funny? There is some good chemistry between Bachchan and the child but later-on when the focus shifts to the melodramatic events the film gets so boringRavi Chopra doesn't know where to go, maybe he felt that he should put some melodrama to make the film look smart and appeal to the audiences of all ages, sadly it didn'tThe director gives a back story to the Bhoot of being a sad person whose Son didn't treat him well straight out of BAGHBAN and that ruins the story and also the Bhoot characterAmitabh acts well and is the best part of the film The Kid is also endearing Shahrukh Khan has few scenes, he has his moments but he looks too tired Juhi Chawla plays the modern day mother, who has an unbelievable sense of humor, she impresses in parts Rajpal does provide some funny scenes Priyanshu is good in a clichéd role

Shashaank Khare BHOOTNATH is a comedy genre movie which has a tragedy as its base. It shows the unfortunate condition of our modern society where children don't want to take the responsibility of their parents in old age similar to Kailash Nath whose son Vijay after studying in America settled there with his wife and avoided his parents. The limit of selfishness crossed when his mother passed away and he came back to India to earn profit by selling his home NATH VILLA. His father didn't allowed so as the memory of his wife Nirmala is attached to this home. This irritates his son and he decided to left him alone there.Here happens the TRAGEDIC EVENT ,when Kilash run behind Vijay to stop him ,he slipped from stairs and died but his son didn't listened to his last words. Till then his dissatisfied spirit roaming in the home decided that he will never let anyone reside there.THE TURNING POINT came when there comes a family of BANKU his kitchen-shy mom and slap-happy dad to live in the house. The ghost has the plan of scaring the family away. But he runs into the notorious 7 year old Banku who mistakes the ghost as an angel (named him Bhoothnath) and befriends him. Thereby begin the funny antics of Banku and Bhoothnath. With a mere flick of his finger, Bhoothnath is able to do magical feats, and more so willingly at Banku's command.The film focuses on the FUNNY ADVENTURES OF THE KID AND THE GHOST until Bhoothnath's past catches up with him.BHOOTNATH focuses on the POWER OF LOVE & FORGIVENESS which Kailash regains with the friendship of Banku. Kailah forgave his son but got bounded with the love of Banku ,so he didn't get MOKSHA(or SALVATION) & he returned back to him secretly and the movie is "TO BE CONTINUED" waiting for his next part including me and other fans of Big B.I gave movie 10/10 because it has everything -a lot of FUN ,MORAL ,MAGIC ,FICTION as well as EXCELLENT ACTING by all the characters .It should be seen by all the age-groups.WOW you should surely buy a DVD of this great movie !!!

die_Heuchler Right from Scene 1, Shot 1 – I knew what I was going to expect. The very first scene of this movie shows two people trespassing into an abandoned home and being scared away by a ghost. Um, sounds familiar – awe, come one! You watched it in Casper, didn't you? Yep, so did I.Bhoothnath is a movie that loosely inspires itself from the 1995 Hollywood movie Casper. It's about a ghost (Amitabh Bachchan), who doesn't allow anyone inside his home but fails every attempt to scare a little boy out of the house. Soon, he discovers that this boy isn't afraid of him at all and then they develop friendship. Then there is this mother (played by Juhi Chawla), a principal (Satish Shah) and a variety of other supporting actors – and yes, I almost forgot to tell you, there is Shahrukh Khan as well. So to all those people out there who love these star studded no-substance movies – welcome aboard.The basic problem of Bhoothnath is that the spine of the story is very very flaccid. It's simply about this little boy and a ghost who do nothing but develop intense love for each other. They become friends, hang out, take part in sports and drama contests and well, that's about it. Can't tell you a great deal of things because the film simply deals with more event-oriented storytelling. Then there are these characters who do not develop at all, there are comedians who fail every attempt to make you laugh (though Juhi is funny at times, those clichéd jokes simply take away from humour from the situation.) In fact, the film is so clichéd that watching the first 20 minutes will tell you most of the story, but then that's where things become a bit tricky, and believe it or not, I grew more and more inquisitive as the film started taking a bloody Baghban twist. Surprised, don't be – it's BR Films trademark.I went absolutely stunned when the back story about Mr AB becoming a ghost started unfolding. It's about these helpless parents whose son has left them, and believe it or not, that the mother DIES in grief and father (Bachchan) meets an accident (well, falls off a flight of stairs) and dies. (Though I loved the scene when he discovers he's dead.) Then he decides to keep everyone off his property and that's the part supposed to scare us.Character-wise, Mr Bachchan is fine. Well, over acted a bit here and there, but one thing is for sure that he is able to get into any character. He fits in this one as well. He still manages to make us adore him with unwashed clothes (the movies says so) and unfiled nails with hideous silver paint on his face. Juhi Chawla is opening up to experimental roles and glad she accepted this part. She has fully justified her character and has shown that's she'd good as a mom too. The Shahrukh-Juhi chemistry works this time around too, but I simply did not understand the reason to have SRK do that role.For Heaven's sake, just picture SRK standing in the background and only his hands visible in the frame. What a waste. Thankfully he did not charge a penny for that role because if he would've, it would make his worse choice of character in his entire career. Delnaz Paul, Priyanshu Chaterjee and Rajpal Yadav too are such a waste of paychecks. Satish Shah is rather irritating than funny. Rajpal Yadav sucks big time and we're not even told what happens to him in the end.However, the good thing is that we have yet another Darsheel Safary in the block. Little kid charms us all the way through the movie. The best moments of the film are credits to him. The scene where he challenges Nath to arrange the furniture was simply adorable and the other one when he's looking up in the sky and calling out to Bhoothnath.Overall, there's nothing great you'd want to watch in this movie. Your kids (mind it, very very small kids with absolutely no sense of judgement) may find it nice, but even 12/13 years will find this movie going to the nuts. It's predictable, it doesn't make use of the comic potential the plot has to offer, big names are attached to the film but their presence does not add any substance to the movie at all. You'll simply hate some scenes for the rest of your life. Music is so-so. Vishal Shekhar flunk again after Tashan. Javed Akthar had given some nice compositions but I think they're a bit over the top for a kid's movie. Production design (ageing dept) sucks big times, especially the first time we're shown this aged building with brightly polished wooden door and shining door knobs. Background score is thrilling at times but couldn't understand the reason why they composed one particular score very identical to that of Baghban's. There was definitely more room for special effects (you'll love a leaves animation sequence) though what's been done feels right in the place.The director definitely needs to come up with something better next time because with such a big production house, all the best choices of actors and still a big hole persists in the whole thing. I don't know what went wrong – but Bhoothnath failed to impress me.6/10 – for you Mr. Bachchan. Been a big fan of yours.