Phone Bhoot *****

Watched on #AmazonPrime

Language: Hindi

Genre: Switch your mind-off

I was suggested by someone to watch the film Phone Bhoot. Naturally, this came up after I shared one of my favorite weekend pastimes: searching for atrocious films, watching them, and then thoroughly trashing the trash. Oh, did I mention that I make my sons join me? It's my playful way of "punishing" them for not doing the things I ask. We get some quality family time, and they learn the art of appreciating (or not appreciating) cinema in all its forms.

I was under the impression the suggestion to watch Phone Bhoot was because it was that bad! It was long overdue, and I recently managed to catch it.

The first 20 minutes lost me completely. Though there were some intended puns and throwbacks to advertisements, movies, and songs, they failed to make me smile.

If you are unaware who's in it, then here’s the star cast:

· Siddhant Chaturvedi (Yes, the seedha saadha guy from gully boy and the hot guy from gehraiyaan)

· Ishaan Khatter (Yes, the Dhadak Hero, I refuse to call him Shahid’s half-brother as his identity)

· Katrina Kaif (no need for intro here)

In simple words this is nothing but apna desi version of GhostBusters. Pan apni wali mein, bhoot Hot Bhoot hai, manipulative hai and business minded bhi hain.

I think the movie literally wasted time establishing the character, their vela-pun, the interaction with their respective fathers and more…

I started looking for frivolous reasons to continue watching the film:

Good usage of sound effects like flight announcements sound and more...

Sound of Siri when it is mentioned.

They both (Siddhant & Ishaan) are brilliant dancers and their chemistry was good with each other than with Katrina.

Bad

· There is this silly green pill they take which also makes their eyes go green but no, they don’t get HULK-angry they just.... zone out!

· Horrendous songs. Definitely none of the musicians or lyricists or singers were paid. Zero effort to make the song even listenable.

There were passing comments and taking pot shots at people that made me smile, like…

· "Bhoot capturing North Indians ke liye hota hai" (not for South Indians)

· "Hum aapke 5 Crore Sonu Sood sameth wapas lauta denge"

· "Woh Panchgani mein Aamir ke bangle ke paas rehte hain. Phir toh zaroor intelligent log honge!"

· "Katrina ka number hain? Vickypedia pe ja, wahan milega."

But the scene where they had me was when the Chennai bhoot is shown Rajini sir's photo and she goes “Thalaiva, Thalaiva, Thalaiva '' and Siddhant a.k.a. Major goes “Saliva, Saliva, Saliva”. Ofcourse cause she spits on him while saying 'Thaliava'.

From this scene onwards... they had me and I was catching every mention and references they made.

I think the movie was all about getting the permissions first, cause there were a lot of Product Placements… both literally and with pseudo names..

Product Placements:

Neokarpin, GoLX, Brahmi Maamla Kesh Tel, Vicks ki goli, Slice, Vasmol

… and more

The bhoot’s had cool names:

· Rahu-Ketu

· Chikni Chudail a.k.a Vidhwa Ji

· Raaka

· Pappu pizza wala

· Lady Daayna (my fav.)

· Johnny Dushman

· Good Man the Lantern a.k.a Aslam Auto wala

There were innumerable Film & Song references:

· "Highway ke beech mein se kaise U-turn le loon?"

· "Chudail ab tak 56 logon ko maut ke divider par utaar chuki hain"

· Katrina’s name was Raagini

· Apni 1942 a love story bandh karo

· "Isko bolo abhi sirf pool (the actual bridge) banaye, hum chale jayenge toh dead pool ban jayega"

· The famous Mohabbatein kabootar scene “aao, aao, aao”

· “Aapko lift chahiye thi toh haath dikhate why this kolaverdi?"

· "We want to die another day"

· Johnny Dushman (name of a bhoot-reference Johnny Gaddar)

· "Dil hai chota sa choti si aasha" (referring to the baalon ki choti)

· "Bade bade deshon mein choti choti baatien hoti rehti hai "(again choti being ballon ki choti)

· "Ladki ka palatne ka wait bhi nahi kiya" (DDLJ)

· "Kandhe pe bithaya toh kaan mein muth diya" (dialogue from Nan Patekar starrer Tiranga)

· Goodman the lantern – aslam auto wala – (reference Green Lantern)

· "Genie in a bottle" (song by Christina Aguilera)

· Looking for switch or password on the astra by saying, "om-om-om-om" (reference Koi mil gaya)

· The famous Flute music from the 1983 movie Hero

· Bohath hard (reference gully boy)

· Bhootni Ke (song reference from Singh is Kinng)

· Nadaan parindey (song reference Rockstar)

· Telephone dhun mein (Hindustani)

· In the night no control (Sabse Bada Khiladi)

· K3G (meeting music)

· Main nikla gaddi leke Lahore aaya main …. (Gaddar… Ek Prem Katha)

· “Viddamaate” (reference to the Malayalam film Mannichitrathayil)

· Reference to the scene of Titanic also

· Yeh dil maange more

Crazy interactions:

· When they see the spirit (the ghost) they say “that’s the spirit” … I mean, it was so lame that it was fun.

· "Mataji ko mata chadh gayi"

· 1: "Mere husband Brijesh bhai wahan hain".

2: "Arrey ben, pehle ye decide karlo ke bhai hai ke husband hai."

1: "Husband hi hai, Brijesh bhai."

· "Mera pool banake mere upar bridge khel rahi hai" (as in making him as a bride then playing the card game bridge over him)

· A bhoot with lantern when says something smart they respond by saying “I am en-lantered”

· When the fathers asks the boys to pay them back in full whatever they spent on them they notice the fathers added GST to it as well. When questioned the father says “voh tumko wapas mil jayega.”

· When the chudail disappears from inside a pipe Gullu says “It is not an MRI, andar nahi jaana tha vidhwa ji.”

· “5.6’ height tha bhaag bhaag ke 5.4’ ho gaya”

· “Hum ek chudail hain, freelance work karke thak gaya. Hum toh work from home bhi nahi kar sakta hai na”

· Katrina (out of all the people) asking Sheebha Chaddha tumhari Hindi weak hain?

Other fun things:

· There was a head of security who had no HEAD!

· The Madad montage was wonderful

· India’s got Idiot – talent show

· Oh there is a song by Baba Sehgal during their Mehnat Montage

· Lahore via Kuwait (This is like my bachpan ka joke)

· The best was tantric Aatmaraam Shashtrashakti (played by Jackie Shroff) they create an app with their company name Aatmaram Shashtrashakti Souls Inc. which inorder to attract the younger generation, he shortens to AsSOULS - (they are into the business of collecting souls)

Overall:

The movie is all about Major played by Siddhant and Galileo Parthasarthy played by Ishaan who are Bhoot Lovers right from their bachpan.

There is a possibility of a part 2 coming as well to this.

If you are a movie buff, only then will you be able to catch all the references made here. If not, kindly SKIP the film.

Advice:

Leave your brains when you decide to watch it as to me it was somewhere like a teeny-weeny bit close to #AndazApnaApna - One of my all-time fav. film. So, the fact that I made this comparison means this film does have the potential to be a cult film in Future!

Ufff…. The amount of detailing here makes me feel like I could present this as my PHD paper.

Have Fun!

-SuVi

*****Fantabulous

****Great

***Nice

**Okay

*Why?