Bhoot: Part One- The Haunted Ship --My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: When a ghost ship washes ashore, it is up to Prithvi, a shipping officer to solve the mystery behind it. 

In 2002 came a horror movie with perhaps the most spine-chilling intro ever! Yes, Ghost Ship started off with a scene that I still remember vividly till today. As soon as this movie was announced, I did believe that this was going to be Bollywood’s take on one of the cult movies.

 

Bhoot disappointedly is not Ghost Ship. 

There are a few familiar elements, but the movie is basically a story about one man who singlehandedly tries to find out everything about a ship that washed up on the shores of Mumbai. Yes, this was one of the implausible parts. A ship without a crew washes up on one of the popular beaches, investigations are going on, yet there are trespassers who get in because there is no one patrolling the area. And why would people want to play hide and seek in a dilapidated ship when things are just basically waiting to fall over your head? Who knows. 

BHOOT: PART ONE- THE HAUNTED SHIP 

The movie begins with a mother filming her daughter, celebrating her birthday aboard a ship. The captain is her husband and the girl’s name is Meera. The girl is around eight years old and is inseparable from a raggedy doll. In the next scene, the girl wanders away in the ship, encounters an unseen force who keeps picking her up. When she complains about dropping her doll, the ghost steals her away. The doll is abandoned. Five years later, a man called Prithvi is saving girls from human trafficking. He’s hailed a hero. 

He works as a shipping officer and has a tragic backstory wherein he elopes with his girlfriend Sapna, and has a daughter. When he is shown later, all alone, we assume something terrible has happened to his family. Prithvi’s only support is his friend Riaz, and his wife Nilofer. Riaz keeps telling Prithvi to be careful but Prithvi is intent on breaking all his bones. Soon enough, it is reported that a ship named Sea Bird has washed up ashore Juhu Beach. There’s no crew and it is a derelict ship. Prithvi and Riaz are tasked with finding out where the ship has been for the past five years. 

They find records and a tape. Prithvi is roaming around the ship when he finds a doll in the passageway. She immediately starts singing a recorded song which Prithvi silences by stepping on it. This must have pissed off the ghost who decides to creep Prithvi. One minute she’s under a bed, the next she disappears. This scene is supposed to provide some scares. Later that night, a couple decides to play around in the ship.

There’s no security around so the couple gets in without any trouble. There’s no tape or signs put up either to keep civilians away. As usual, the couple too decides to play hide and seek. This angers the ghost woman on the ship and she decides to kill the couple. Their bodies are found buried in the sand. 

Prithvi is tasked with removing Sea Bird from the shores before more people turn adventurers or sleuths. The salvage boat fails miserably and Prithvi sees someone fall into the water. He jumps right in ignoring Riaz’s warnings. While saving the man, he notices a hole in the lower regions of Sea Bird and sees a girl staring back at him. Prithvi and the man are saved but the former suffers from more hallucinations. He is asked by Nilofer to see Professor Joshi who is a researcher on ghosts. As soon as he enters the Professor’s office, the machine delivers a loud beep and the professor immediately claims that there is an evil spirit around Prithvi. 

Prithvi doesn’t believe in ghosts but does believe in not taking his medications and hallucinating about his dead wife and daughter. Apparently, he had urged his wife and daughter to go boating on the rapids. The life jacket is too loose for the daughter and she drowns while the wife hits her head on a rock and dies. The professor manages to convince Prithvi that there may be ghosts haunting the ship and he needs to investigate. 

Prithvi, knowing he is the hero of this film, goes all alone to the ship to investigate. He finds a video camera as well as a ghost running toward him. He then encounters the ghost of a girl making creaky bone sounds and screaming. The side door opens wide and it is Riaz who knows it his job to babysit his insane friend. He too sees the girl take Prithvi and jumps off the ship. The duo escape without a scratch. Prithvi watches the video on the camera and realizes the girl he saw on the ship might be Meera, the captain’s daughter. He does recognize her by the doll who has been wandering about Prithvi and spooking him. 

Prithvi is convinced that the girl is Meera and that she must be alive. Riaz doesn’t think so. He is certain the girl is a ghost and could not be alive. Prithvi states that Meera disappeared when she was seven or eight and the girl they saw was around thirteen or fourteen. Riaz wants to stay away from it all, but Prithvi persists, mostly because he lost his daughter because of his carelessness and wants to make up for that by saving a girl. He talks to the professor who guesses if that girl is indeed Meera, then she is possessed. 

This doesn’t deter Prithvi who wants to save the girl even if it means he will have to tackle ghosts. We are shown the girl laying by an opening where there’s water, and running her fingers around. There’s a noise heard in the dark before someone throws a fish at her. The girl looks up before grabbing the fish and chomping down on it. 

Prithvi watches more of the videos he recovered and sees the crew members standing in a line and jumping off the ship. He sees a smiling face of a crew member afterwards and wonders who he could be. Prithvi manages to convince Riaz to help him with his little adventure. Prithvi is thrown about and broken his bones, but still doesn’t want to stay away. 

They go to a church and pretend to return things they found aboard the ship to Meera’s mother’s family. They are informed that Meera’s mother Vandana is alive and well. They see Vandana pleasantly lighting candles before ruining her mood by telling her of their suspicions. 

She, in return, provides them with the missing information. She was an abused wife and had tried to take her life, but a crew member, the one they saw in the video, saved her. His name was Amar and it didn’t matter to him that Vandana was married to the captain. He wanted to have an affair with her that caused Vandana to become pregnant with his child. Vandana wanted to bring down her husband by filming videos of the ship’s illegal cargo that consisted of drugs and gold bars.

 Amar has become too eager with the video camera and was caught. He was tortured and according to Vandana, succumbed to his injuries. They decide to take Vandana to the ship to save the girl but hand over a walkie-talkie to her and tell her to wait on the deck while she gave them directions to the secret compartment where Meera was supposedly kept.

 But of course, Vandana doesn’t do as told. 

BHOOT: PART ONE- THE HAUNTED SHIP Ending Explained with Spoilers! 

She sees Meera as a little girl and goes after her. Prithvi, Riaz, and Professor Joshi are attacked by the ghost. It is when Prithvi is slammed and all banged up when he has a flash of truth. It was Vandana who had stabbed him. She tells him it was because she was afraid her husband would find out about the affair and kill her and her child. Amar had been tortured horribly for two days but still not revealed about his affair. 

But Vandana wanted to be sure she was fine. So basically, Amar takes revenge by kidnapping his daughter, possessing her and feeding her raw fish. Poor Meera had terrible parents. 

Prithvi sees Amara’s skeleton still hanging. The Captain had enough time while Meera was growing up to dispose of the remains but decided to just leave it hanging there for Prithvi to find years later. Amara’s ghost kills Vandana as she mumbles excuses. The Professor’s incantations have no effect and Riaz was thrown aside long ago. Finally, Prithvi manages to burn down the skeleton. 

He finds the girl and dives into the water as the ship is engulfed in flames. Riaz has already run away after causing the diesel to leak. The professor drowned sometime during the exorcism. Prithvi escapes with the girl through the hole he had seen before. Everything is normal afterwards. There is no investigation regarding what happened to Sea Bird.

Prithvi has brought Meera home and taught her to eat noodles instead of giving her proper medical care. Did he adopt her? Was he allowed to? Who knows. The mid-credit scene shows a looming shadow around the house. Well, this was part one. Part two needs to be something related. Will Vandana’s ghost haunt him? The Professor who wished he had never helped Prithvi?

The movie had an okay first half but drags in the second half. The horror scenes are not effective or frightening. It was a movie that requires a little tightening in its storytelling. 

Scare scale: 2.5/5