Movies Review: Aatma

Cast: Bipasha Basu, Nawazuddin Siddique, Doyel Dhawan

Direction: Suparn Verma

Rating: **

Suparn Verma makes sure that he has incorporated every horror film cliché in ‘Aatma’. The film’s linear narrative follows a very predictable plot trajectory that hardly delivers on the thrill quotient.
Maya (Bipasha Basu) is a single mother, just divorced from her abusive husband Abhay (Nawazuddin Siddique). Abhay dies in an accident and his ghost is haunting Maya because he wants his daughter Nia (Doyel Dhawan) back. What follows is a very obvious series of events where anyone who offends the daughter meets a gruesome end. Maya has to battle with not only the cruel intentions of her dead husband but she also has to fight for her daughter’s life.
I understand that horror is a difficult genre to get right but we can’t expect special effects to compensate for the lack of a good script. The story progresses with very little thought to character development, actors are introduced so that they can conveniently be disposed off. The film is frustrating in parts because there’s a psychiatrist, there’s a priest, there’s a police officer but none of them can do anything substantial to help Maya in her ordeal. You know every possible victim and each murder sequence plays out without any suspense or build-up to the crime.
Bipasha and Nawazuddin put in an honest effort but are saddled with sad dialogue and a script that’s difficult to rise above.
The director doesn’t have to break any new ground with his story but a horror film has to be at least a little scary. No?


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