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Bhoot And Friends
Director: Kittu Saluja
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Ashwin Mushran and Makran, Ishita, Akash, Tejas
Rating: Two (**)
Advice: A treasure hunt with a ghost, umm…not as exciting as it sounds! A jaded-faded desi version of Indiana Jones.

Ideally, children would the best consumers of fantasies and adventures. But sadly, even today children’s films remain a huge untapped segment in India. Half-hearted attempts such as Bhoot And Friends - only add to the woes of this neglected genre. But then there is always a glimmer of hope and a sense of optimism whenever a children’s film hits the theatres.

The posters of the film held a promise of an adventure and some thrills – what with Jackie Shroff in the garb of a ghost, but the film crushed all those hopes with its slow, imbecile and inane narrative.

Reshma Dev’s story of an 11-year-old and his NRI cousins holidaying in their native village and there running into a ghost, sounds intriguing as a one-line. But as a full-fledged feature film – the story seems stilted and inadequate.

Meet Raghav, a not-so-bright student who accompanies his US returned cousins Ishita and Igloo to his village for the holidays. Don’t ask why his seemingly idle and stay-at-home mom didn’t accompany them! So the kids fly down to the town close to the village and as they travel across the hilly area in a car sent by their granny to pick them up, night falls and they have a brief run into the resident ghost of the jungle.

Even as their granny tries hard to shake off the local rumours about the ghost, the kids find themselves drawn to it all the more. Raghav calls upon his local friend Ali to get a reality check. There he stumbles upon a much bigger and evil plot perpetrated by Gora Saab (Ashwin Mushran), a descendant of a British Colonel who had tried to plunder the local King and make away with the fabled blue diamond or ‘neel mani’. Gora is in search of the lost treasure and the diamond with one of a torn map from his grandfather.

As Gora kidnaps Ali’s father for his property to be dug out in search of the elusive treasure, the four children set out to rescue him. They manage to enter Gora’s den and spirit away the treasure map. But they are caught on their way out and as they run helter-skelter in order to escape Gora’s goons – they end up running into the thick of the forbidden jungle. At dusk, sure enough they are accosted by the legendary ghost (Jackie).

The other missing half of the map is with the ghost. He is the wandering spirit of the army commander of the king who died fighting. He had entrusted his brave commander to restore the treasure to his subjects and given him the map to the treasure. However, half the map was snatched out of his hands by the vicious Colonel and he had died with the other half. Now as luck would have it, both the pieces of the map are in one place and the ghost joins those up and urges the children to find the treasure.

The mazes and tricky paths with fire-spouting gargoyles are definitely reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the treasure hunt. Although not fractionally as slick or as exciting. Hurdles in the form of a blue soapy gurgling water body are just so ridiculous. Even the treasure bearing cave and the guarding spirits are so silly. On the whole, the adventure is insipid and plods miserably.

The climax of the treasure hunt is also so tame and the spooks are so silly that forget about chills – you are so bored that you can’t even laugh at the imbecile proceedings.

Jackie as the ghost is too gentle and friendly, Gora Saab is terribly contrived. The only characters that touch a chord are the four children. Especially polio-afflicted Ali played by young Tejas Rahate is endearing and so is the dimpling, cubby Akash playing Igloo, the fat kid obsessed with his snack bag. Makrand as Raghav and Ishita as Roma are engaging in their own way.

The special effects of the air-borne bag and the invisible punches is far too dated. However the digital intermediate of Jackie on a horse back is impressive. Madhu Kamble’s sets are a tacky reproduction of Indian Jones backdrop, Hanif Shaikh’s action sequences are lackluster.

Alas! Kittu Saluja squanders a golden opportunity of making an engaging children’s film!