Reel life Bombay. Part 5

Today's post by Macushla looks at what lies beneath in Bombay. Here's her rather different take on Ram Gopal Verma's "Bhoot".



Bhoot (2003): A movie about ghosts set in a city full of them. Dead ones and live ones. Present ones and past ones. Real ones and made-up ones.

So, have you heard of the Haji Ali story? A young woman hitches a ride and when you reach her destination, poof !, she’s disappeared. You knock on the door of the address she’s given and the old man who opens it, points woefully to a garlanded photograph.

Or the one about the architect of a prominent period hotel who still walks the corridors checking for flaws?

Or the fav film locale that was once a not so-popular mill in Colaba? Actors have felt a strange, overwhelming presence.

Hotel rooms? The hot spot for suicides where secret liaisons also turn sour and lovers become murderers. I’m sure they’re full of restless souls.

In Bhoot, Swati is haunted by her flat’s previous occupants – Manjeet, a young single mother, and her child. As the exorcism unfolds, so does the truth. Manjeet and her son were murdered by her lusty landlord on account of a rape-gone-wrong.

In real life, we are haunted by much more. Everyone has ghosts because everyone has secrets. And Bombay simmers with secrets as deep as the Arabian Sea.

It’s in the papers every day. Secrets being buried, bartered, bought, sold, exposed. Every one has something to hide. Everyone is willing to pay the price for it. Every one wants to push something into the past, till the past runs out of space and pushes it right back into your face.

But we go on. Still hiding, still pushing. Still creating more ghosts. Dead ones and live ones. Present ones and past ones. Real ones and made-up ones.

Yes. Bhoot recaptures the spirit of Bombay.

Recap - Reel Life Bombay is a free-wheeling series on Bombay in movies and life in Bombay, as seen by my guest writers (Filmiholic, Macushla and Punds) and myself. Here are the earlier posts

Part 1 - Filmiholic on "Salaam Bombay"
Part 2 - My take on "Satya"
Part 3 - Macushla on "Main Madhuri Dixit banna chahti hoon"
Part 4 - Punds on "Katha"