Now this is what falls under the purview of being a timepass affair. A horror comedy that did promise chuckles when the promo was launched, Bhoot Police ensures that there is laughter, drama, scare and story coming together in equal proportion. Director Pawan Kripalani had set the stage for a two hour movie that would keep you engaged reasonably well and this is what happens too during its entire running duration.
On the same lines as Stree and to a little extent even Roohi, Bhoot Police channelises its focus more on the ‘ghost busters’ Saif Ali Khan and Arjun Kapoor, instead of the ‘Stree’ who is out to haunt, ‘Kichakandi’. In a sleepy corner of Dharamshala, there os an evil spirit who is scaring the daylights out of the workers at a tea plantation factory owned by Yami Gautam and Jacqueline Fernandez. Even as the two brothers, one being a believer in ghosts and another who considers this as superstition, try their different tactics to unravel the truth, the reality turns out to be something different.
First 30-40 minutes of the film do establish the characters, though one waits for the real story to kick off. While Saif is fun to watch in a rustic avtar and Arjun is sincere in his quest to truly learn ‘tantrik vidya’, you wait for the turn of events at Dharamshala to infuse further life in the story. This is what happens too when you do realise that there is indeed a ghost on the set up, though intermittent episodes featuring Jaaved Jaffrey, Jamie Lever and Rajpal Yadav don’t cut much ice. However, once one of the main leads get obsessed, you know that the drama is getting sinister.
It’s just that it takes quite some time from this point to the actual backstory been revealed. Had that come in a bit earlier, the wait to join the dots wouldn’t have been longer. Moreover, had the motive behind the wandering aatma been written more imaginatively, it would have helped the story further. Here, it seems convenient and heard before.
The fun element is indeed there though, courtesy Saif, and he is supported well by an earnest Arjun. In fact the manner in which the film ends, it gives an impression that makers Ramesh Taurani and Akshai Puri have a franchise in mind. Yami is decent while Jacqueline looks great, though her characterisation could have been stronger. She is million bucks though in the song that plays in the end credit rolls.
Eventually, Bhoot Police doesn’t aim to establish itself as a memorable film but what it does well is to be good fun while it lasts. Play it on for a lazy evening out with the family.