Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 movie review: Lazy, formulaic writing weighs heavily on Kartik Aaryan film

Bad question. The glorious legend of the dead dancer was the thing that perked up the proceedings in the first Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007, directed by Priyadarshan), and kept us going in the second (2022, directed by Aneez Bazmee). And now, with Bazmee back at the helm, it also has Vidya Balan returning to a role she had made her own that first time around: her face smeared in red vermilion, contorted with feelings bursting from within, she was a true sight.

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But this third-go-round suffers from the same things that the previous one did: stereotypes instead of characters, forced humour which refuses to land, and tasteless lines bordering on the risible. The first hour and more is wasted in giving us the lay of the land, in which Aaryan and Dimri get to make eyes at each other, interspersed by cartoons masquerading as characters showing up as and when.

It’s only in the second half that the real film starts. That’s when Madhuri Dixit joins the gang. And mysterious noises from within the locked room become louder. Is the spirit of Monjulika haunting the haveli still? Is there such a thing as a ghost? Who is Monjulika? Balan or Dixit? But the scourge of lazy, formulaic writing weighs heavily on this film, which has enough characters– Raaz, Mishra, Sharma– who can turn a line into a laugh.

Both Balan and Dixit have enough heft to make a meal of a movie. But it’s almost as if Bollywood is in a bhoolbhoolaiyya of its own when it comes to using stars who can actually act to deliver something stronger than a bunch of characters murdering the Bangla accent. The much-awaited dance-off between these two is a damp squib too: for a real Madhuri cracker, go back to ‘Dil Toh Pagal Hai’, or even ‘Devdas’.

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Aaryan shows, once again, that he can do the needful when the material backs his strengths. Here we have to wade through nearly two hours of nothing for one scene in which he shows his comic timing in a double role. And the big gender-progressive reveal, which should have made this film better than it turns out to be, is wasted in the underlined way it is done.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 movie cast: Kartik Aaryan, Tripti Dimri, Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit, Vijay Raaz, Sanjay Mishra, Rajpal Yadav, Ashwini Kalsekar, Rajesh Sharma, Arun Kushwah, Saurabh Dubey
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 movie director: Anees Bazmee
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 movie rating: One and a half stars