Bhoothnath (Devanagari: भूतनाथ translation: "Lord of Ghosts") is a Bollywood Ghost film directed by Vivek Sharma, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Aman Siddiqui, Priyanshu Chatterjee and Rajpal Yadav in lead roles. Shahrukh Khan appeared in an extended appearance. The film is an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde short story The Canterville Ghost.^[1] It was released on 9 May 2008, receiving generally positive reviews from critics and was well received by audiences, thus becoming a success at the box office. Moreover, it was a very popular movie among children and the performances of the trio namely Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla and Aman Siddiqui playing Banku were majorly appreciated by critics and audiences alike.

Plot

The story focuses on Aman Sharma a.k.a. Banku (Aman Siddiqui), who has recently shifted into an old bungalow in Goa, with his parents, Aditya (Shahrukh Khan) and Anjali (Juhi Chawla). His father Aditya is an engineer on a cruise line, and therefore moves with his cruise. They are made aware that the bungalow is haunted, but they disregard this. Banku is enrolled in St. Francis High School, and Anjali hires a kindhearted and comedic drunken thief, Anthony (Rajpal Yadav), as a servant to clean the house. Shortly thereafter, Banku starts getting in trouble in school, and is reprimanded by Principal J.J. Irani (Satish Shah). To make matters worse, he also starts making up stories of a new friend called 'Bhoothnath'. Anjali disregards this, but during a stage performance, a local resident tells her that Banku is mimicking the former owner of Nath Villa. Anjali soon finds out that the bungalow is indeed haunted by its former owner - Kailash Nath (Amitabh Bachchan) - who is shortly known as "Bhoothnath", and has befriended Banku. Bhoothnath will not permit them to vacate the house under any circumstances. When Aditya finds out, he rushes back home, and hires a death ceremony for Bhoothnath's salvation, and asks Bhoothnath's son Vijay Nath (Priyanshu Chatterjee), to attend. Banku has grown very close to Bhoothnath and is heartbroken when Bhoothnath disappears after the salvation. On his way to school, Banku happily finds that Bhoothnath has returned, having decided that he will never leave Banku again.

Cast

• Amitabh Bachchan as Kailash Nath (Bhoothnath)
• Aman Siddiqui as Aman (Banku)
• Shahrukh Khan as Aditya Sharma
• Juhi Chawla as Anjali
• Priyanshu Chatterjee as Vijay Nath
• Rajpal Yadav as Anthony
• Neena Kulkarni as Mrs. Nath
• Satish Shah as Principal J.J. Irani
• Delnaaz Paul as Mrs. Jojo
• Nauheed Cyrusi as Tina (Special Appearance)
• Aashish Chaudhary as Rohan (Special Appearance)

Reception

The film received generally positive response from critics. IMDb rated it 6.9/10, and holds a score of a fresh 76%. At the box office, the film had an below average opening, though managed to gross Rs.25 Crores among its theatrical run. It was declared an above average grosser by Box office India. ^[2]

Sequel

Many expectations for a sequel to Bhoothnath have been rumored, however, at the climax of the original, Bachchan explains a chance of "To be continued..." The director has currently not announced the sequel, though many sources report that it is to go on floors mid-2012.

References

External links

• Bhoothnath at the Internet Movie Database