First Trailer For Suparn Verma's AATMA Puts A New Spin On The Old Ghost Story

I've been waiting for this trailer for a long time and it looks even better than I'd hoped! From director Suparn Verma (Acid Factory, Ek Haseena Ek Khiladi) comes Aatma (Spirit/Soul), a new kind of ghost story. Aatma stars Bollywood bombshell Bipasha Basu, who is no stranger to horror, and my favorite working actor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Basu plays the single mother of a young child whose father has died, but not without leaving a huge stain on his wife's life. Nawaz's character was a horribly abusive husband, and his death leaves Basu free to raise her daughter without fear. However, when strange things start happening, Basu realizes that she may not be as free of her past as she thinks. Nawaz is back from the spirit world and looking to collect his daughter... and only her mother can save her.

One of the most intriguing things about this trailer is the ghostly character being played by Siddiqui. Unlike many such ghost stories, which seem to feature ghosts coming back from the dead for purely nefarious reasons, Siddiqui's ghost seems to genuinely still love his daughter. Rather than trying to harm her, he seems to just want her to be with him. It's a very interesting take on the material that I have very rarely seen. Of course, Siddiqui's ghost isn't all goodness and light, and it's up to the girl's mother to protect her, but he seems almost like he could be a very sympathetic antagonist, which always makes things more interesting.

Director Verma is a big fan of ScreenAnarchy, and had this trailer specially subtitled in English just for us, so I want to share this with you all and see what you think. I'm really excited to see where this goes. While I'm not Bipasha Basu's biggest fan, I do love Nawaz and have faith that the film will equal more than the sum of its parts. I hope to be surprised in a good way! 

Aatma opens worldwide on March 22nd.