Party to banti hai!

This dialogue from this movie, Bhoothnath Returns, sums up the current political scenario in the country. ‘Kuch thuk jaate hai, kuch bik jaate hai’ (Some get bumped off, some get sold off) –we are talking ‘good’ politicians here. And yes, I just used an oxymoron.

That is perhaps the thing that Bhoothnath Returns intends to highlight, ‘good politicians’ should not be an oxymoron. And I must congratulate myself for summing up an entire movie (again) a few sentences into the review.

Boothnath (Amitabh Bachchan) returns to earth, as a ghost again, from the land of ghosts that looks suspiciously similar to Hogsmead and Hogwarts. He failed miserably in his last stint as a bhooth (

Bhoothnath) as he failed to scare a child. He must go back and do the deed, that is– scare a few kids (curb those dirty thoughts!). So back he goes and lands straight in Dharavi and comes face to face with Akhrot (Parth Bhalerao). This kid can see him too (he sees dead people!) and even before you can say ‘Jamaila!’ the two team up to do some good.

Let’s face it, Bhoothnath is a good guy. He helps Akhrot make some honest money by helping some other dead people finish their incomplete work (the thing that ties ghosts to places they haunt) and get going. So while they are being good, the ghost-boy duo crosses paths with corrupt politician Bhau (Boman Irani). And as they try to politely get by they realize that a lot more needs to be done to make things good in the hood. The politician needs to be pushed off his seat and Bhoothnath goes to polls and also the mattresses (Google the

Godfather reference please).

The rest of the movie is all about the campaign, the cleaning up the act etc etc and throw in some emotional speeches about how the country needs to get up and pay attention, you have a new political manifesto. It might work. It might not. But we know how the movie ends and just spare us the inked finger pictures on Facebook.

Boothnath Returns makes a relevant point. Director Tiwari isn’t off the mark with the message he wants to deliver. Awareness is great but the mistake he makes is that he allows the sermon to go on a tad bit too long. The movie could have done better with a little less of the preachy business, say half an hour less of it. The movie has some solid acting, some great dialogues and it wraps up pretty neat. Bhalerao is a revelation, the kid holds his own strong in front of veterans like Bachchan, Irani and Sanjay Mishra (who plays lawyer for candidate Bhoothnath).

With the LS Polls drama on in full swing, Boothnath Returns is excellently timed. Watch it because it is fun, watch it because the actors are great and watch it because if you haven’t got the message yet, you won’t get it after the movie either. Deal with it!