Bhoot: Part One - The Haunted Ship movie review: Vicky Kaushal fails to scare, watch at your own risk

Director: Bhanu Pratap Singh

Star Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar, Ashutosh Rana

Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship Rating: 2.5/5

Dharma productions Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship

Dharma productions forays into horror-thriller genre  Bhoot: The Haunted Ship, whose title is borrowed from Ram Gopal Verma, is as clicked as one could predict. Vicky Kaushal one of the finest performers takes the burden on his shoulder and we feel sad that he choose this film.

Director Bhanu Pratap Singh's debut film has nothing new to offer. the same old dark background with a haunted music score along with creepy dolls, broken ship, and loud screams doesn't scare you even a bit. The makeup of actors is so cringe-worthy that you you laugh than get scared. Move, turn, blink at your own risk going by this said tagline, I must say, watch the film at your own risk. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Storyline

Based on a true incident, the film begins with Vicky Kaushal's character, Prithvi, as a haunted man who is a grieving marine officer who lost his wife (Bhumi Pednekar) and daughter in a drowning accident. Prithvi speaks to his dead child through a make-shift toy telephone. He refuses to take medicines, survives hallucinations just to see his wife and child after a day's long work. 

 One dull morning, a deserted ship 'Sea Bird' drifts ashore Juhu Beach in Mumbai. The shipping authorities want the vessel to be moved away and Vicky decides to takes up the mission with his loyal friend Riyaz by his side.  unforeseen and scary incidents start happening on the ship. The makers soon unveil the reason behind these incidents, untimely death on the ship which causes spooky incidents in the ship which slowly and steadily is unfolded in the screenplay, Without giving away the spoilers. we leave up to you to figure out is there Bhoot or not!

 Performances

Vicky Kaushal bares the burden on his shoulder and tries his best to live up to the expectation of masses. His earnest efforts to make you scare fails miserably as we aren't scared even for a fraction of second, but all the points to him for making us believe that there is a ghost with all the props available like creaking doors, upside down crawling creatures on walls, a creepy doll and a lot of clicking of fingers.

Bhumi Pednekar has a very small role and is underutilized as Vicky's wife. We wonder why the makers didn't make her part of the screenplay to an extent.

Ashutosh Rana as professor Joshi knows the skill of his role but falls flat not because he can't pull off the role, but his character has certain abnormalities which masses couldn't connect. A small blink and miss kind of role don't pay an impact on the mind.

Positive

Being Dharam's first horror genre film kudos to the makers for attempting a genre that Bollywood doesn't touch upon. Despite having a weak storyline. The first half is rather comical than setting up the horror base.

The second half moves too quickly wondering what just happened! What works in favour of the film is the grey palette which runs throughout. The background score by Ketan Sodha. Pushkar Singh's cinematography and underwater sequences are mind-blowing.

Ketan Sodha's background score offers a few jumps scares, but it's Bhanu Pratap Singh whose writing fall flats. Editor Bodhatiya Banerjee's editing is crisp but ends abruptly which keeps the makers wanting for the big reveal.

Negative

Despite having a short run time of 114 min. Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship has a sluggish storyline that doesn't scare you even a bit. Everything is so haphazard and doesn't make you cringe even a bit seen those scary objects like the haunted doll or unidentified objects on the ship.

Music given by Akhil Sachdeva has nothing to offer. The film needs no music as the background music itself is so thumping and loud. 

We must confess, however, that the spooky version of the otherwise happy Kuch Kuch Hota Hai soundtrack, that plays at the beginning of every Dharma film is a bit unnerving The make-up ends up making the characters look unintentionally funny, rather than scary.
 
 Verdict

To sum it up, as the tagline of Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship Move, Turn, blink at your own risk, isn't worth taking risk nor the screenplay is so intriguing that you wouldn't want to move, turn or blink. The film doesn't require your time.