There is something intrinsically and inevitably amusing in even the most frightening of ghost stories if the anything-goes on-screen antics of spectral apparitions are taken in the right spirit. That explains why horror-comedies usually have a such a committed constituency. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, for all its flaws, is unlikely to face a dearth of takers this Diwali weekend.
The film may not be as spooky as all-out horror flicks are supposed to be - and that certainly isn't for want of trying - but its unbridled lunacy and spontaneous comic energy more than make up for what it lacks as a movie that is seeking to scare the audience out of their wits.
Like the first two films, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, mispronounces Manjulika in a variety of different ways and degrees and gets away with it. That is one guessing game that this critic has always played with the entries of the franchise. Each time the name of the alleged vengeful phantom is mentioned, it sounds different. Nobody seems to have ever bothered to figure out what the right enunciation should be.
In the third instalment, as in the past, the audience is asked to spot who, what and where Manjulika is. It isn't until the very end of the film that the secret is revealed and it isn't what we expect it to be. In that regard, Bhool Bhulaiyaa does catch us by surprise.
The mispronunciation of a proper noun is but a minor drawback in a film that thinks nothing of indulging in a merciless mutilation of the Bengali language. The onslaught never stops because every character in the plot has a shot at it and comes up way, way short of phonetic accuracy. But for large swathes of the film's audience that drawback will hardly matter.
Apart from Aami je tomaar, which is of course a musical leitmotif that has survived all these years, one of the characters in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 hums the Tagore song Aami chini go chini tomare ogo bideshini without anybody around bothering to reveal the provenance of the number.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, is wildly erratic in quality but notwithstanding its many obvious failings, it is way better than any of the hyper-masculine actioners that open in our multiplexes (and on the streaming platforms) week after week and revel in glorifying insatiable bloodlust expressed through innumerable means. Give us the harmless silliness of the BB3 kind any day. It does not do as much harm as big screen violence does.
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 burnt at the stake in a part of Bengal two centuries ago, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, scripted by Aakash Kaushik (who co-wrote the previous instalment as well) and helmed by returning director Anees Bazmee, wastes no time at all in plunging into the mad, mad, mad world of 'ghostbuster' Ruhaan (Kartik Aaryan).
Called Rooh Baba by his clientele, Ruhaan is a fraudulent exorcist who plies his trade in present-day Kolkata in the company of his lackey Tillu (Arun Kushwah). 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 pauperised royal family headed by a maharaja (Vijay Raaz), lives in the cattle shed on the grounds of the mansion because that is all they can afford.
Their emaciated cow gives no milk, every tube of toothpaste is made to last forever and the suspected presence of a ghost makes the sprawling property unsaleable. The first half of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, is breezy enough to pass muster as Rooh Baba worms his way into Meera's heart and wins over her family. But the film's flirtation with harmless inanity can go only this far and no further.
Once the hilarity is replaced by a serious confrontation between the mortals who live in the house and the dead denizens who still hover behind locked doors, the film loses a great deal of its zing. It looks for ways - but largely in vain - to stay afloat on a merry mix of outlandish claptrap and the undeniable combined allure of Madhuri Dixit, who makes her entry in the final pre-interval scene, and Vidya Balan, who arrives on the scene much earlier in the guise of a professional restorer of heritage buildings.
The acting in the first half is mainly of a physical nature. It borders on slapstick and banter. But once Dixit and Balan (who is back in the BB world after all of 17 years) go toe to toe, their eyes, their dancing skills and emotive acumen do a lot of the talking, raising the stakes in the bargain.
Not that the two seasoned performers, who, as the whole wide world knows, face off in a dance set-piece, one dressed in the manner of a Kathak performer, the other in a Bharatanatyam dancer's costume, aren't drawn into bouts of excess.
The duo is never out of step with the spirit of the film even when they are mindful of not letting the maddening whirligig that the film is sweep them away.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 has an array of exceptionally gifted comic actors who provide the male lead all the support that he needs when the film begins to flag. 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.
It is evident that Kartik Aaryan's has got the hang of the weird and disorienting house of mirrors that is Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3. His star turn is a repeat act that promises a box-office outcome that could be on par with what Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 yielded.
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Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit, Kartik Aaryan
