Phone Bhoot Movie Review: Katrina Kaif, Ishaan Khatter and Siddhant Chaturvedi's Supernatural Comedy Runs Out of Good Gags and Spooks In Its Tepid Second Half (LatestLY Exclusive)

Phone Bhoot Movie Review: Ishaan Khatter and Siddhant Chaturvedi are two of the most talented actors to grace Bollywood in recent times. They have excellent screen presence and are good dancers, and in Gurmmeet Singh's Phone Bhoot, both show fantastic sense of comic timing and wonderful chemistry with each other. Some of the lamest jokes in the movie work purely because it is hard not to be charmed by their infectious enthusiasm. But there comes a point in Phone Bhoot, a half-decent spooky comedy that is also graced by perennially pretty Katrina Kaif, that I wish the movie would also have their backs when it comes to leaving us fully entertained. Phone Bhoot: Katrina Kaif Shares Stills With Co-Stars Ishaan Khatter, Siddhant Chaturvedi From the Horror-Comedy and They Are Unmissable.

An air-headed Punjabi jock Major (Siddhant Chaturvedi) and a Tamilian geek Gullu (Ishaan Khatter) have been childhood buddies who are obsessed with horror movies. Their bachelor pad is decorated with horror memorabilia, especially from Ramsay movies, and their 'idol' is the ghoulish Raakha. For a living, they become party organisers, but they just can't pull off a successful event.

During one such party, a freak incident happens that gives the duo an unexpected power - they can now see, touch and talk to ghosts. Then arrives a beautiful bhoothini in the form of Ragini (Katrina Kaif), who has a business proposition for them - she will help them exorcise ghosts, and in return, they need to help her with a favour.

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The premise of Phone Bhoot is a mish-mash of movies like Ghostbusters and The Frighteners, with a little sprinkling of Weird Science and My Dear Kuttichathan (Chotan Chetan for the Bollywoodians). And it had no qualms of being a potpourri, as Phone Bhoot uses ideas from these movies, and then try to make its own humour out of them. And I quite seriously enjoyed that aspect, at least in the first half.

From the meta jokes to visual gags to the physical comedy of the two male leads, there are plenty of amusing moments in the first half, which quite firmly establishes that this is a movie that is completely absurdist and is to be enjoyed that way. No logic to be applied, and you certainly need to follow that, especially when you see a ghost being hit by a car, and then our hero duo trying to 'rectify' her backward-turned feet causing her to scream in pain! The sequence where Ragini reveals her real self to the duo at their home and then the scene where Major and Gullu try to sell their ghost-busting idea to their fathers were funny. Even the scene where Ragini invokes Katrina's Slice ad to seduce the heroes left me in titters. There is also a surprise cameo (three of them actually) that could be a hint at a cross-connect 'Excel' universe at work here.

At times, the humour took solace in caricatures, like when Gullu tries to calm a Tamilian ghost by showing Rajinikanth's picture (later, a daayan is made to dance on a Punjabi song), which ain't that amusing (and so is Ishaan's efforts to be a Tamilian). What works in such scenes are Siddhant and Ishaan's energetic performances that breezily carry the film in such patchy scenes, at least in the first half. With the entry of Jackie Shroff's evil tantrik Atmaram near the interval, I expected Phone Bhoot to go all out in the second. Phone Bhoot X Chacha Chaudhary! Katrina Kaif’s Horror-Comedy To Feature in Indian Comic Series.

All out it does go there, setting up an outlandish battle between Atmaram and his supernatural cronies vs Phone Bhoot team. Unfortunately here's also where Phone Bhoot runs out of steam when it comes to its quirky narrative and below-the-belt humour. A couple of gags still manage to amuse like Gullu and Ragini creating the "Telephone Bhoot Pe Hasne Wali" song from Hindustani. Or a chudail, played by Sheeba Chaddha (funny here, but deserves better), doing The Flash and accidentally crossing borders to the neighbouring country. Overall, though, the comedy pales big time when compared to the first half. And it is high time that filmmakers should stop using creepy male behaviour as a source of humour.

Major blame would fall on how the makers try depict the Jackie Shroff portions, which neither end up being menacing nor being funny. Even Ragini's backstory on how she became a ghost doesn't come out interesting enough to feel bad for her, even if the movie finds time to make a joke on it. While I tried to lock away the questioning part of my brain away in the first half, the tepidity of these portions forced that part to come out and ask certain pertinent questions. Like, why was Atmaram trying to achieving by tricking the spirits and imprisoning them in bottles? How exactly does 'moksh' works when the freed spirits still manage to come back? Why did Atmaram keep the two mortal heroes alive when he could easily finish them off with his powers? How do spirits that can get inside a mortal body and pass through walls get hit by vehicles?

See, I wouldn't have been asking these questions whose answers are never made clearer anywhere, if Phone Bhoot had continued to regale me with good jokes and a better premise. Sadly, that's not the case here, and the amusing promise that the first half had set up gets squandered by a weak second half and a weaker finale.

Final Thoughts

Phone Bhoot could have been the Go Goa Gone of this decade, and it does a good attempt at being that in its amusing first half. Alas, a below-par second half and a weak villain exorcise most of the good bits turning Phone Bhoot into an okayish supernatural comedy with some funny jokes. Which is a travesty, since Ishaan and Siddhant are just too good in the film!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 04, 2022 01:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).