CRITIC'S RATING: 3.0/5
AVG READERS' RATING: 2.9/5
Story: Aniket (Abir) and the editor of his late father’s horror magazine, Kripadhar Babu (Supriyo), visit an eerie little village called Kushumpur with their mysterious companion Nandini (Sohini) to discover the sad truth about a haunted school there.
Review: The thing about horror films is that they can either scare the living daylights out of you or turn out to be damp squibs. Shob Bhooturey is neither; because it’s not a horror film at all. It’s basically a ‘ghost’ film — they seem to be everywhere and almost everyone can see them — and deep down, an endearing tale of a few innocent schoolkids and their paper planes.
Now that the elephant’s out of the room, let’s look around a bit. First, the characters; and by natural selection, Nandini — the creepiest of them all. Sohini has done a really good job of giving us the creeps with her straight-faced unblinking stares and glares and those unruly locks. But her co-stars, Abir and Supriyo just don’t feel that convincing.
Aniket, especially, is a very poorly written character, who doesn’t seem to have a clue what he really wants — sell off his ancestral property, close down his father’s magazine or become a ghost-hunter himself. And what has the property got to do with the magazine? Can’t it just be shifted to a new office if not closed? He’s forever in search of the will, but when he finally finds it, he doesn’t do much. Moreover, the way he finds it should have altered his attitude towards Nandini, but nothing changes. Abir, as an actor, seems pretty casual in his approach to the character, which is a bit out of character for an actor like him.
Kripadhar Babu seems to be an addition without much of a reason, though Supriyo tries his best to add some light moments. But when the character is sketchy, there’s nothing an actor can really add to it. That’s exactly the case with this character. It’s neither comic nor does it add much to the storyline, despite being an intrinsic part of it. On his part, Supriyo Dutta seems to have tried his best to play his part well.
It’s, however, little Ida who truly gives Sohini a run for her money when it comes to creepiness. The little girl brings almost a Ring-esque aura to the latter part of the story. Her large eyes and stolid stares add that teeny-weeny bit of horror to the ghost story. A really good job for someone her age.
The background score stays true to the ‘horror’ jerks, but the ever-windy and ever-smoky backdrops hardly match up to the music. For god’s sake, how can there be billowing smoke at Aniket’s office when he’s speaking to Nandini for the first time? Is it supposed to be on fire or something? And why is it always windy? No clue.
The bottomline? You can certainly watch Shob Bhooture. But if you want to get the jitters, better watch something like The Ring again.
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