Bhoot: Part One - The Haunted Ship - 2020

Story

BHOOT: PART ONE – THE HAUNTED SHIP is the story of a man facing a scary situation while fighting the horrors of his past. The year is 2012. Prithvi (Vicky Kaushal) is a widower who has lost his wife Sapna (Bhumi Pednekar) and daughter Megha in a freak accident. He is depressed and is avoiding medication. In the midst of all this, an abandoned ship named Sea Bird gets stranded at Mumbai's Juhu Beach. Prithvi works for a shipping company that is asked to take this ship back to the sea at the earliest. On his first visit to the ship, strange things occur and it makes him feel that the ship is inhabited.

However he passes it off as his hallucinations and side effect of his state of mind. The subsequent visits however makes him sure that all this is not a figment of his imagination.  Bhanu Pratap Singh's story is decent and could have made for a gripping scarefest. Bhanu Pratap Singh's screenplay however is unimpressive overall. He gets the scare quotient right only in few scenes. Even in the main story, things are barely convincing. His dialogues are passable. Bhanu Pratap Singh's direction is nothing great. Talking of performances, Vicky Kaushal is in good form. He looks very dashing and gets his act right, without going overboard in any scene. Bhumi Pednekar is decent in a cameo. Ashutosh Rana (Professor Joshi) is fine and gives one a déjà vu of his earlier performance in RAAZ. His character sadly gets a raw deal in the end. Akash Dhar (Riyaz) plays Prithvi's best friend and has an important role. He is decent but again, he doesn't have much to do later. Meher Vij has a superb screen presence but her performance suffers on account of bad writing. Akhil Sachdeva's music has no scope. 'Channa Ve' is played in the opening credits. Ketan Sodha's background score is horrifying and works. Pushkar Singh's cinematography captures the mood very well. Aditya Kanwar's production design is top-notch. The abandoned ship especially is well designed. Natashcha Charak and Nikita Raheja Mohanty's costumes are realistic. Vikram Dahiya's action is filmy and takes away the authenticity. Redefine's VFX is first rate and adds to the horror factor. Bodhaditya Banerjee's editing is dragging and could have been crisper. Ideally, this film shouldn't have been more than 90 minutes long.

On the whole, BHOOT: PART ONE – THE HAUNTED SHIP suffers from a half-baked plot and a flawed narrative which leaves viewers confused. The end result is completely unconvincing, barring a few scenes that provide some chills.