Aatma revolves around the aatma (no kidding) of a father (Nawazuddin Siddique), who has come back to this world to take his daughter, Nia (Doyel Dhawan) with him. The mother, Maya (Bipasha Basu) will do everything to ensure her daughter remains safe, all while battling paranormal occurrences that happen at the hands of a spirit that just won’t let go. This was one film we were very much looking forward to, but unfortunately we left the theatre disappointed – and still going “WTF?” over certain things. Spoilers ahead.
5 things that made us go WTF during Aatma:
1. Characters who don’t use logic. To be fair, this is more a complaint with horror movies in general than specifically for Aatma. But you guys, I will NEVER understand this about horror films. Good God, if there’s a ghost on the loose, why on earth would a character find themselves alone all the time? You know there’s a ghost out to kill you but you will happily work after-hours in a deserted office, leaving yourself open to whatever the hell happens. Not only that, but it’s totally okay to have your child out of your sight despite the fact that – oh, I dunno – the priest has told you you’re supposed to keep an eye on her. And after something particularly scary happens and you flee to a relative’s house with child in arms, it’s definitely a good idea to leave the girl sleeping alone in another bedroom. Oh oh, and if you’re a teacher whose student has been murdered and you see this student walking the halls while it’s dark (of course) and you’re alone (of course) in a deserted (of course) classroom, it makes absolute sense to go chasing this student while calling out their name. I mean, I don’t know about you guys, but my “Dealing With Ghosts 101” consists of surrounding myself with people at all times, and definitely not calling after people who are supposed to be dead!!!
2. Predictability. Like I said, we were expecting quite a bit from Aatma, especially since the film pegged itself as a psychological thriller. What we got instead was clichéd horror elements – creepy old women, mirrors, shadows, strange phone calls, balls bouncing by themselves, chairs rocking on their own accord, etc etc etc.
3. The lack of scare! With a title like Aatma, we were expecting to be hiding behind our fingers, but despite a few moments – one involving the creepy old lady for sure – there wasn’t much scare to go on. We’re a bit faint at heart but still enjoy being scared at times, except we weren’t in this case – a big disappointment, considering that this film leans more towards horror than thriller.
4. Everybody dies. Okay, not everybody (and we won’t tell you who), but so many people do – some of them being gratuitous deaths. You can almost see the stage being set up for one bloodbath after another, and after a point it stops becoming creepy and just becomes a guessing game of “who’s next?”
5. Pankaj. This character is hilarious, y’all. We’ve heard his name more than any other character in the film except that he serves no purpose at all and is just a voice on the phone for the majority of it. With the amount of importance this name was given, you’d almost expect there to be some storyline there, but there isn’t at all. Infact, when we exited the cinema, our first question was: “What happened to Pankaj?!?!” Methinks Pankaj was short-changed.
Verdict:
Aatma has its moments, and it’s supported by some good performances – Nawazuddin is dependable, although unfortunately he doesn’t get the chance to show his full talent; Bipasha is a pro at this genre and delivers a good performance; Doyel manages to be adorable and creepy at times; Shernaz Patel, Darshan Jariwala, Tillotama Shome, Jaideep Ahlawat do justice to their parts as well. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t live up to expectations, mostly because of a thin plot and a dependence on clichés.
With inputs from Amruta Khatavkar.