Not a horror film in the real sense, this can be referred as a fine watch for the teenagers and the adults too if they just want to have some fun along with some spooky moments.
Directed by Sandip Ray, the title JEKHANE BHOOTER BHOY means ‘Where there is a fear of ghosts’ and it features three of the best short ghost stories selected from the works of the renowned Satyajit Ray and Sharadindu Bondopadhyay (the writer/creator of the famous Byomkesh Bakshi).
The first story "Anath Babur Bhoy" (Ananth Babu’s Fear) is by Satyajit Ray and it revolves around a ghost-hunter who comes to visit a haunted house in a remote village as a part of his research work. Spending a night all alone in the house he has some unexpected experiences resulting in a dreadful end. And then the final sequence reveals it all with a twist. The overall impact of the onscreen presentation of the story remains average may be due to the predictability factor involved giving you an early indication.
The second story "Brown Saheber Bari" (The House of John Middleton Brown) again by Satyajit Ray turns out to be much better both in execution and suspense having some interesting horror moments too. It again revolves around a person searching for a probable ghost mentioned in a decades old diary acquired from an old-antique book seller. And the conclusion makes you smile as a group of three friends find that abandoned house and decide to spend a night in it as some kind of a ‘spooky picnic’.
The third story "Bhoot Bhobishyot" (Ghost’s Future) by Sharadindu Bondopadhyay is the best of the three, having the elements of horror, fun, wit and a bit of smart cunningness too based on a strange relationship between a writer and an old man’s ghost living on a tree since the 19th century. It’s a light-hearted fun-filled story with a clever twist in the end pointing towards the sharp human mind always willing to take it all leaving nothing for the rest. And it’s this particular story that actually lifts up the film giving you a great time in the end rising to the above average level.
The three stories are interestingly narrated by another character of Ray, a friendly old man called Tarini Khuro (Respected Uncle Tarini) addressing a group of kids willing to hear some ghost stories. Each story covers about 30 minutes of the film’s complete duration and may be due to the length, a fourth story was reportedly dropped titled Lucknow-er Duel (The Duel of Lucknow) written by Satyajit Ray.
Both the cinematography and background score keeps on improving with every new story supported by decent performances. And thus overall it manages to become a fine one time watch having an exclusive merit of introducing you to the fabulous stories written by the two gifted masters.
A film that ideally should inspire both the young and grown up readers to explore the not to be missed ‘rich regional language literature’ of our own country.
Rating : 3 / 5
(Note : The film is available at Amazon Prime with English Subtitles)
Tags :
JEKHANE BHOOTER BHOY (Bengali) Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, Indian Regional Language Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, The Rich Regional Language Literature of India.
