STARRING

Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Rajpal Yadav, Tejas Are, Vijay Nath, Satish Shah, Aman Siddiqui and others.

DIRECTOR

Vivek Sharma

 STORY

The story of the film revolves around the friendship of Banku(Aman Siddiqui), a young boy of seven and Kailash Nath aka Bhoothnath(Amitabh Bachchan), a ghost, who help each other in various ways. Banku, along with his father (played by Shah Rukh Khan) and mother (played by Juhi Chawla) moves into a new house, but he does not know that the mansion is haunted.

 

Bhoothnath does not like tenants coming to his house and disturbing him. Bhoothnath tries every trick in the book to scare Banku and his parents to leave the house but fails. Ultimately he becomes friend of Banku. However, the story takes a sharp turn when Kailash Nath’s son (Priyanshu) decides to dispose off the house. How Banku tries to find out the reasons behind Bhoothnath’s wandering soul and what he does to help him get salvation forms the remaining part of the film.

PERFORMANCE

Amitabh Bachchan has given once again a stellar performance in the character of Kailash Nath. The legendary actor seems to be re-inventing himself with every new film that he acts in. He is outstanding in his interaction with the kid and display of emotions. Aman Sidiqui, in the role of Banku, has done a brilliant job. The kid has kept his cool even before a giant like Big B, says it all.  Shah Rukh and Juhi Chawla ,as parents of Banku, are just brilliant and play the role to perfection.

Satish Shah, in the character of a school principal, looks natural and comfortable in his role. Rajpal Yadav has no scope to show his talent and seems out of place. Priyanshu impresses with his strong acting talent in the role of Kailash Nath’s son. Nauheed Cyrusi and Aashish Chowdhary pass the muster. Others provide good support to the main cast of the film.

The direction of Vivek Sharma is brilliant. He has successfully handled the unconventional subject of a relationship between a mortal and a bhoot. The director is successful in extracting the best out of his two main actors- Big B and Aman Siddiqui, which has made the film a pleasure to watch. The execution of last twenty minutes is especially superb. He has handled the visual effect with élan and it enhances the quality of the film. The music by Vishal Shekhar is not up to the mark and could have been better. They seem to have lost their Midas touch and have been coming out with mediocre numbers.

STARDUST VERDICT

In a nutshell, the film offers something new and unconventional and has the full potential of doing better at the box office during this season of children’s holiday. Though the film belongs to kids, it has enough emotional ingredients to lure family audiences. An excellent fare.