HINDI FILM industry had a long fixation with the Bhoot (ghost), from the release of Mahal, which marked the debut of the Ramsay brothers, the Indian Bhoot captured everyone’s imaginations. The plot was clear. A deserted bungalow with gusts of wind blowing at unimaginable speeds, a creaky gate that would open on its own and a stoned servant who would look a lot like a ghost, but looks can deceive. The background sound, screeching of owls would mark the entry of the ghost midway into the film. The ghost is of course the pivotal character of our film.

 

He had a lot of make up to build a grotesque half burnt face. You could put in a fake eye for better effects, or simply use the camera angles to show none at all. Our male ghost was a sex maniac. And if it were a female one, then she was surely there to take revenge from her ex boyfriend, who had murdered her, or to make it more theatrical to kill her in laws, who had burnt her in the kitchen. The climax of the movies would have a tantrik appearing and trying to beat the hell out of the ghost.

 

The Ramsay brothers reeled out their trademark movies year after year. If you haven’t yet seen them, Jadu tona, Purani haveli, Veerana, Chudail ki raat, Kabrastan, Zahereelee raat, and Khooni saya are some of the titles that are sure to lure you.

 

But in the 1990s, the ghost of our industry donned a new role. Naseeruddin Shah played it in Chamatkar and raised quiet a few laughs. The ghost no longer had a grotesque face, but had turned into a spirit and could look just as normal as you and me except, only some gifted person could strangely see him.

 

Then the ghost became the superhero of our films, one that could possibly do anything. Aishwarya Rai did it in Mohabbetein to show that being a ghost was not all about looking ugly. Jaani dushman is one of the best movies ever made, had a character transforming into a Icchadhaari naag (whatever that means) except that he would romance Manisha Koirala and would beat up the bunch of the good guys (Akshay Kumar, Sonu Nigam, Arshad Warsi etc). 

 

Shahrukh Khan, the great Baadshah of Bollywood couldn’t resist the temptation of playing the Bhoot, and did so in Amol Palekar’s Paheli, wherein he falls in love with Rani Mukherji and then simply packs off the real husband to take his place. Well, the film bombed at the box office. Ajay Devgan played the character in Kaal, in which he scares away Vivek Oberoi and John Abraham from the Corbett National Park. In this movie too, Devgan could do just about anything by influencing the tigers.

 

Interestingly, here all the actors but the digital video camera of one of the leads could see the Bhoot. The kind of powers that the ghost seems to have generated over the years is phenomenal.

 

Esha Deol played the screechy, testy ghost in Darling, one that would appear all off a sudden at any location and irritated the hell out of the audience. In the recent flick Om Shanti Om, Deepika Padukone comes back to avenge her death. The entire reincarnation concept would itself had its detractors, but Farah Khan had our real ghost coming up in the last scene. We also had Jackie Shroff playing such a character in Bhoot Uncle.

 

Ram Gopal Verma too has been obsessive about the ghost. With Urmila Matondkar playing the character of ‘Swati’ in the movie Bhoot, one of the scariest movies to have ever been released in Bollywood. Then it was of a young kid donning the role in Vaastushastra. And his films like Darna zaroori hai and Darna mana hai had a host of them like Arjun Rampal, Sohail Khan, Vivek Oberoi and Randeep Hooda.

 

If Rakesh Roshan had followed the Bhoot concept, we would have had a ghost playing the lead role in Koi mil Gaya and instead of Krissh the superhero could have been a ghost or a nag (cobra). Well, thankfully Rakesh Roshan decided to move away from the Ghost concept and usher in fresh aliens.

 

The ghost has been in the pink of health in Bollywood. And with Amitabh Bachchan playing such a character in Ravi Chopra’s Bhootnath, it is going to be better.