Cast: Bipasha Basu and Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Director: Suparn Verma

Rating: 2.5/5

This 'Aatma' fails to scare

Stories around the dead have always managed to intrigue the audiences, which is why director Suparn Verma attempted to make a psychological thriller.

Child custody battle takes a new turns as mom Maya Verma (Bipsasha Basu) fights with father Abhay Verma (Nawazuddin Siddique) who is an 'Aatma' (dead).

Abhay who is obsessed with his daughter, wants to take her with him to the world of dead and Maya has to stop him from doing so.

Horror movies have the usual haunted house, screechy doors, but Aatma is very different. It is all about supernatural elements and how a mother is ready to do anything to stop her daughter from being possessed.

'Aatma' is about a mother–daughter bond and Suparn beautifully intertwines the story of the paranormal world with it.

Nawazuddin is undoubtedly one of the finest actors that Bollywood has seen in recent times, and once again he manages to deliver a knockout performance. Nawaz plays the role of a ghost with finesse.

Bipasha Basu is probably one of the 'A' league actresses who has attempted horror movies in a row. After doing 'Raaz 3' she is now attempted to do an emotional horror 'Aatma'. However, her role does not give her much scope to prove her histrionics.

Baby Doyel has done a wonderful job, the six year old has the perfect expressions on her face. Even while Suparn has tried not to make the usual run of mill horror movie with the low quality visuals, the movie has shock value, but the pace of the movie is very slow and hence fails to scare you.

Shernaz Patel has done a decent job, so have Jaideep Ahlawat and Darshan Jariwala.

Director Suparn Verma has earlier directed movies like 'Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena' and this time too he manages to make an intriguing movie, however, the script and screenplay are quite a letdown.

Cinematographer Sophia Winqvist has done a splendid job by creating scary visuals. Hemal Kothari's editing is also very precise.

A crisper screenplay would have made 'Aatma' one of its kind supernatural thriller, but unfortunately that does not happen.

Overall the experience is not satisfactory.