Aatma

Plot synopsis:
Nia is the daughter of Maya (Bipasha Basu) and Abhay (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who are divorced. Maya and Nia live with Maya's parents (Shiv Subramaniam) and (Shernaz Patel). Nia is unaware of the fact that her father is dead. Maya deliberately hides the truth from her as Nia is a sensitive child and adores her father. Things start getting bizarre when Paras, Nia's classmate who bullies her in the classroom, ends up dead. Soon after, Nia's teacher, Mrs. Sinha, who complains about Nia, is also found dead. Moreover, Nia often starts talking to her dead father.
Concerned about the absurd change in Nia's behavior, Maya takes her for counselling. It is revealed that Abhay was a hot-tempered man. He lost his job and friends because of his frequent violent bouts of anger and also suspected Maya of having an affair with her colleague, Pankaj However, Abhay loved his daughter more than anything else. After Abhay starts beating up Maya, she files for divorce and gets the sole custody of Nia. Abhay cannot bear this and threatens Maya that he will take Nia away from her. Shortly after the hearing and the pronouncement of the Family court, Abhay dies in a car accident. After the session, the counsellor (Mohan Kapoor) advises Maya to take Nia out for the weekend. The mother daughter duo do so but Abhay possesses Nia and threatens Maya that he will take their daughter away with him.
Maya consults a priest (Darshan Jariwala), who tells Maya that as long as she and her daughter share a strong bond of love, Abhay won't be able to kill either of them. After the counsellor tries to convince Nia that her father is dead, the counsellor himself is found dead. Later, Abhay kills Maya's friend Aakanskha for which Maya is framed and arrested. She is admitted in a mental health facility centre in confinement for treatment. Maya's mother calls the priest home to get the home blessed from the evil spirit. Abhay kills the priest and Maya's mother too. Maya, in a desperate bid to save her daughter, kills herself in the health centre confinement, as she remembers the priest's words that no mortal can fight a spirit. Maya becomes a spirit and saves Nia just as Abhay is about to kill her by pushing her before a fast-moving local train. She also destroys Abhay's spirit, thus ensuring Nia's safety for the rest of her life.
In an epilogue, Nia is shown celebrating her 18th birthday while Maya's spirit fondly watches her.

Tags: paranormal

Review:
Aatma Will Cause You Hypertension!.
NOTE: If you've watched Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity Series, Mama (2013), The Possession (2012) & Spanish thriller The Orphanage, DO NOT bother to watch this flick.To start with, Aatma has extraordinary special effects and a wonderful climax.
And to end with, the story is clichéd and boring with dull soundtrack.
What could've been told in less than ten minutes has been made up as a movie which doesn't send a single chill down your spine, if only lights turning off and doors shutting scared the Jack of YOLO times.
Not a chance.Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the guy behind me going and spending 300 bucks, has a very small role.
His dialogs are vague and is totally wasted.
The main characters are Bips & the debut child artiste with not-so-happening smile.
The remaining cast performance is below average.
Now, since the story has a parade of loopholes here and there, even if you try to enjoy this movie, you abruptly fail at every juncture because of large implications and imagination left to interpret in free space.A maze where the exits are closed and the screenplay so dramatic, this horror turns out to be a big let-down for an industry crippled with nonsensical movies.
If this suit follows, then I am afraid the horror genre cannot be bounced further; not to mention about the other genres' plight.BOTTOM LINE: An inventive thought and hard work invested with indigenous story, but Aatma fails at every point of categorizing it as an unconventional horror Bollywood flick due to poor execution and sound effects.
Not recommended.Can be watched with a typical Indian family?
YESLanguage: No | Sex or Nudity: No | Violence: Very Strong | Gore: Critical | Smoking, Alcohol or Drugs: No | Vulgarity: No. When High Expectation Leads To A Mere Disappointment.
The one and only thing that snaffled my mind about AATMA was the unusual pairing of Nawajuddin Siddique and Bipasha Basu.
Nawajuddin has proved his mettle as an actor in Kahaani, Talaash, Gangs of Wasseypur etc and his name in a horror movie as the lead actor with gradually improving Bipasha has raised unbound curiosity in my mind.Being a fan of horror and psychological thriller genre i was sure of a meatier story, chilling sound effects and tricky special effects.But unfortunately three of the ingredients were missing and even powerful acting of the two lead actors could n't save the movie from being an ordinary attempt by the Director Suparn Verma who shot to fame with "PANKH"- A critically acclaimed movie.
After half an hour the story falls into the flat zone of a normal Hindi horror movie and except few scenes that wowed in terms of special effect nothing scary was there.
The biggest fault of the product is it lacks genuine horror or scary moments and even though the production house promoted it as a psychological thriller, it doesn't also justify the same.
Acting wise Both Nawaj and Bipasha have done their level best with cute Doyel Dhawan adding some so cute type gestures, lack of scary moments in this flick failed this most awaited flick in terms of business and critical acclaim.
The movie could have been way better and if you are a die hard fan of the genre and the actors, then go for it.Otherwise skip it and have a cup of coffee at the coffee shop.
At least the INGREDIENTS are properly MIXED there..
Is this a really a horror movie ?.
Hi, Yesterday night i went to see this movie, there is no proper screenplay in this movie and zero percentage horror.
Not even sound effects scare you, nor the "AATMA" Bipasha Basu is not at all learned acting till now except showing her legs and chest.
No logic in the movie and the ending of the movie is also funny.
This shows our Indian director not good to make horror movies .
If you die hard fan of Bipasha go and watch otherwise save your time.
camera work is good unnecessary songs if you remove the songs this is just short film.
editing is bad and very low performers as cast.
totally the movie is waste of time to watch.
An unusual mix of good scenes, bad scenes & a fresh theme adapted for an Indian horror film..
The first look of AATMA and its interesting trailer attracted many lovers of the horror genre since those 2 minutes promised a lot new or fresh in terms of content, supported by an unusual star-cast featuring Bipasha and Nawazuddin together.
The trailer worked hugely because at last we had a novel plot here, showcasing a father's soul coming back to the world in order to take her loving daughter along to the other side, post his untimely death.
And this very new thought incorporated in an Indian Horror film, moving ahead of all those clichéd plots actually appealed to many.However revealing the gist of the review in just one line, AATMA's trailer was much more exciting and thrilling than the complete film itself and you are not going to find that promised innovation, freshness or path breaking execution of the 'Father-Daughter" theme in the film as expected.
In other words, its well edited trailer actually revealed it all in advance, killing the surprise element of the film, due to which it fails to hold you for long even in its short duration of less than 100 minutes only.AATMA comes to the point right away as it begins and then offers some reasonably good scenes in its first half particularly the sequences involving the girl's school and Bipasha's torture.
Another one featuring Bipasha and Nawazudin sitting in front of the judge for their final divorce hearing makes you sit straight as an indication of something exceptional coming in the later reels.
But sadly, from here on the director takes on the same rotten & seen before path once again with all repeated scenes of a possessed girl (reminding you of RGV's BHOOT RETURNS), the victim doctor, surprised relatives and a tantric coming in the house to fight with the spirit in a routine manner.As a result, all the novelty in its theme of a "Mentally sick but loving father" adapted for the first time in a Hindi horror film gets lost in this tedious kind of execution by director Suparn Verma, who could have turned it into something great, making it with an out of the box mindset for a change.
Thankfully he doesn't bow down to the usual 3-4 song compulsion linked with this particular genre and offers a crisply edited project along with a decent cinematography & background score.
Yet despite of all these positive elements, the end product is not even close to what was being expected from him after an impressive trailer.Another major point which goes against the film is the less emphasis given to the character of Nawazudin, whom the viewers wished to see more after his recent worth watching performances in few award winning films.
The script keeps its main focus on Bipasha instead, who is just fine in his emotional portrayal of a helpless mother without any visible variations in her scenes in both the halves.
On the other hand, Nawazudin tries his best to come up with an effective performance but the talented actor is not given enough well written scenes to showcase his skill as desired.
Moreover, this was a complete mismatch tried by the casting director to add some more value to the project which in turn backfired hugely.
The small girl, Doyle Dhawan is appealing in some scenes and forcibly acting in the others with her eyes repeatedly making a contact with the people behind the camera (while shooting).
Ideally all these scenes should have been replaced with the other shots on the editing table, but probably the director didn't have much choice and had to keep the same ones only in the final print as it seems.
In the supporting cast Shernaz Patel over-reacts in few of her scenes, Darshan Zariwala has nothing much to do, the Inspector tries hard to justify his badly written role and the English teacher is just perfect in her short appearance in the first half.Adding to the weak points of the film, it has a big problem of continuity break in its various shots like Bipasha still doesn't know about the death of her daughter's teacher in the school itself even post intermission, there is no reasoning or serious investigation shown for the various killings happening at different venues and that one Police Inspector who keeps behaving like a psychic all the time, right from his first scene itself in a very funny manner.
Moreover the climax of the film also remains ineffective completely with Bipasha re-appearing in a designer jeans and top as the angle to meet her grown up daughter quite weirdly.Further its high time for the Hindi film-makers to realize that if they are offering a less than 100 minutes film to the viewers then it needs to be shown in one go without the normal interval of say 10 minutes.
Because its simply not justified to witness a break at mere 45 minutes after sitting on your seats, which obviously brings in some negativity in the theater as I felt visibly looking at the faces of my fellow viewers.In all, yes AATMA does have a new subject to talk about in the horror genre but the same cannot be said about its treatment on the screen unfortunately.
So you might enjoy it more in your home theaters at a lesser cost and without any immediate interval as such in just 45 minutes..
Horror : rofl.
once again being a horror freak and desperately in search for a good horror movie i stepped into the theater and after 100 Min's i came out with a sarcastic smile on my face.
The movie started of good and ran good for about half hour but then the movie totally lost its control and not at all scary even in parts.
Especially the climax is absolutely childish.The story line is very simple and it is about a mother rescuing her child from the ghost of an abusive husband.
Though the story line is simple there are movies which created chills by the screenplay and background music but this movie has nothing in the credit of the director and musician the title song being the only positive thing.The performances by the main characters are good enough,bipasha has improved her acting and siddiqui is talented as always..
Weak plot!.
This movie has a weak plot , Nawaz has been sort of wasted in the movie , wish they would have utlilized him properly .