Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar, Ashutosh Rana
Director: Bhanu Pratap Singh
RATING
What’s it about:
Loaded with mysteries, a haunted ship lands up ashore Mumbai’s Juhu beach. How many more lives will it sink before it sets sail again?
Review:
It’s an interesting premise and what makes it even more intriguing is the fact that this is inspired by real events. Sea-Bird was actually a ship that vanished along with its crew and of course, this makes for a delicious horror story. Only if debutant writer-director Bhanu Pratap Singh could cash in on the immense potential of this thrilling reality. Instead, the director chooses to tease his audience with bits and pieces of just about everything – from the shocking incidents on the ship to his protagonist Prithvi’s (Vicky Kaushal) sad past. He just doesn’t finish a scene without cutting it abruptly to a point that it starts to become annoying after a point. Vicky Kaushal is mounted with the responsibility of feeling all the fear and being brave enough to keep going back to the ship to unravel its mysterious. He does this to seek some closure for his long-standing guilt of losing his wife (Bhumi) and daughter in a river rafting accident.
But it all happens so many times over that the screenplay becomes repetitive and boring. Thankfully, the background score isn’t jarring and the cinematography is consistently strong with rich dark tones that build the eerie atmospherics. There are few well-timed jumpscares, but surely not enough to send the chills down your spine. What hurts the film the most is it's a juvenile and lackluster backstory that is simply ridiculous to merit such a heavy buildup. The film wastes talented actors like Ashutosh Rana, who plays a scientist but starts chanting “Om bhleem kleem chamundaya namah” to exorcise the funny looking ghost. From that point on, I knew that nothing can save this sinking ship.
‘Bhoot Part One the haunted ship’ will not drown you in fear but definitely sink you into the abyss of boredom for two hours. And that’s the most terrifying part.
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