Bhoot: Part One – The Haunted Ship
Directed by: Bhanu Pratap Singh
Writing Credits: Bhanu Pratap Singh
Cast:
Vicky Kaushal – Prithvi Prakashan
Ashutosh Rana – Professor Raghuveer Joshi
Meher Vij – Vandana
Akash Dhar – Riaz
Sara Gesawat – Meera
Priya Chauhan – Nilofer
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Cinematographer: Pushkar Singh
Editor: Bodhaditya Banerjee
Composer: Akhil Sachdeva
Runtime: 1hr 54mins
Language: Hindi
Synopsis:
Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions stated it’s a new kind of horror scale, BHOOT: PART ONE – THE HAUNTED SHIP. A man who is replenishing from his bad past. Vicky Kaushal who is known to the world from the hit of URI: THE SURGICAL STRIKE (2019), is the lead of the film. Prithvi (Vicky Kaushal) who has lost his family in an accident who tries to recover from it lately.
Review:
“Sea Bird”, an abandoned ship that reaches the banks of the Mumbai Juhu Beach. As Prithvi works for a shipping company, he is instructed to move the ship back to port. He finds many strange things, inside the ship. Since that visit to the ship, he gets a lot of distracted memories of his family but he always has a subsequent action for it naming it a hallucination and one of the accident side effects. Later then he was clear about the happenings in the ship that those are real. He starts to dig deep to get answers. He finds a girl on the ship and also in the process of finding out for evidence, he pulls out some videotapes and papers, etc. His search about the case makes the audience feel about what was the incident that took place on the ship in the year 2001. He gets cleared one by one, by viewing the tapes as, (Meher Vij) captain’s wife and her daughter Meera was present on the ship. Prithvi realizes the girl on the ship is Meera. As all these encounters happen finally Prithvi visits the girl who is as a ghost. And here begins the story. What happens next?
The director, Bhanu Pratap Singh’s story is way ecstatic and the story narration is a kind of new tale to the audience. His screenplay impresses, still a little scary might be tossed over. He gets the scare quotient right only in few scenes. Even in the main story, things are barely convincing. Bhanu Pratap Singh’s dialogues are passable. He makes good use of his knowledge in creating a scary atmosphere. Trouble begins in the first 15 minutes itself when a random couple is shown venturing into the massive ship undetected and playing hide and seek. The ship is ten stories tall and this information is given by the makers themselves just a few minutes before this scene.
A few jump scares also serve the purpose. The interval comes at a great point. Post interval, there’s some movement in the story and you actually get to know where the film is headed. Talking of performances, Vicky Kaushal is in good form. Akash Dhar (Riyaz) plays Prithvi’s best friend and has an important role. Bhumi Pednekar is decent in a cameo. Ashutosh Rana (Professor Joshi) is fine. Meera and Megha’s playing characters did well.
Pushkar Singh’s cinematography captures the mood very well. The abandoned ship especially is well designed. Aditya Kanwar’s production design is top-notch. Natashcha Charak and Nikita Raheja Mohanty’s costumes make a feel.
A Quarantine watch! Suits the caption.