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Review of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3: Kartik Aaryan’s comeback as a star is expected to have a box office performance comparable to that of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.
If the spectral apparitions’ anything-goes on-screen antics are interpreted appropriately, even the scariest ghost stories have an inherent and unavoidably humorous quality. This explains why the audience for horror comedies is typically so devoted. Despite its shortcomings, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is not likely to have a shortage of applicants this Diwali weekend.
It may not be as spooky as full-on horror films are meant to be—and that is not for lack of trying—but its unrestrained madness and unplanned comedic energy more than make up for its shortcomings as a film that aims to frighten viewers to their core.
It seems that nobody has ever bothered to figure out how to pronounce it correctly.Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 mispronounces Manjulika in a number of ways and to varying degrees, just like the first two films, but it gets away with it. With the franchise’s entries, this critic has always engaged in that kind of guesswork. The name of the supposed vindictive phantom sounds different every time it is spoken. It appears that no one has ever bothered to determine the proper enunciation.
As before, the third installment asks the viewer to identify Manjulika’s location, identity, and object. The secret, which is not what we anticipated, is not disclosed until the very end of the movie. In that regard, Bhool Bhulaiyaa does surprise us.
In a movie that has no qualms about brutally mutilating the Bengali language, the mispronunciation of a proper noun is merely a minor inconvenience. Every character in the story has an attempt at it and falls far, far short of phonetic accuracy, so the assault never stops. Large segments of the movie’s audience, however, will not really care about that flaw.
One of the characters in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 hums the Tagore song Aami chini go chini tomare ogo bideshini without anyone nearby bothering to disclose the song’s origin, aside from Aami je tomaar, which is undoubtedly a musical leitmotif that has endured over the years.
Despite its many glaring flaws, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is far superior to the hyper-masculine action films that appear in our theatres and on streaming services every week and take great pleasure in exalting unquenchable bloodlust through countless methods. Give us the BB3 kind of harmless silliness any day. Compared to big-screen violence, it does less damage.
After a brief prelude in which we see a dancer turn into an angry ghost after being dragged away mid-performance from a royal court and burned at the stake in a region of Bengal two centuries ago, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, written by Aakash Kaushik (who also co-wrote the first film) and directed by returning director Anees Bazmee, jumps right into the crazy world of “ghostbuster” Ruhaan (Kartik Aaryan).
Ruhaan, a dishonest exorcist who operates in modern-day Kolkata with his lackey Tillu (Arun Kushwah), is known to his clients as Rooh Baba. He claims to be endowed with the power to communicate with ghosts but is scared of rodents.
As he and Tillu, who faints at the slightest sign of danger, go about conning the gullible, they are pulled into a con that is much bigger than the ones that they perpetrate on their unsuspecting and gullible victims.
Rooh Baba, at the exhortation of Meera (Triptii Dimri) and her maternal uncle (Rajesh Sharma), ends up in a haunted palace that has not been inhabited for many decades. The poor royal family, headed by a maharaja (Vijay Raaz), lives in the property’s cattle shed since it is all they can afford.
Every toothpaste tube is made to last forever, their emaciated cow does not produce milk, and the expansive property is unsellable due to the possible presence of a ghost. While Rooh Baba worms his way into Meera’s heart and wins over her family, the first half of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is calm enough to get by. However, the movie’s fling with harmless inanity can only go so far.
The film loses a lot of its zing when the humour is swapped out for a sombre confrontation between the dead residents who still lurk behind locked doors and the mortals who live in the house. With a merry mix of outrageous claptrap and the undeniable combined charm of Madhuri Dixit, who makes her appearance in the last pre-interval scene, and Vidya Balan, who enters the scene much earlier under the pretence of being a professional heritage building restorer, it searches for ways to stay afloat, but mostly in vain.
The majority of the acting in the first half is physical. It verges on banter and slapstick. The stakes are raised when Dixit and Balan (who has been back in the BB world for 17 years) compete against each other because of their eyes, dancing prowess, and emotional intelligence.
It is not that the two seasoned performers, who, as everyone knows, compete in a dance set-piece, one dressed like a Kathak performer and the other like a Bharatanatyam dancer, are not tempted to go overboard.
Even when the two are careful not to let the film’s frustrating whirligig get to them, they are never out of step with its spirit.
A number of incredibly talented comic actors in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 give the main character all the help he needs when the movie starts to wane. Vijay Raaz is terrific as always, and so is the inimitable Sanjay Mishra. Not far behind the two are Rajesh Sharma, Rajpal Yadav, and Ashwini Kalsekar.
Kartik Aaryan has clearly mastered the strange and confusing house of mirrors that is Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3. As a repeat performer, his star turn could have a box office result comparable to that of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.
- Cast:
- Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit, Kartik Aaryan
- Director:
- Anees Bazmee