Bhooth Bangla movie review: Akshay Kumar’s dated, ungainly film makes you miss Monjulika

However, certain things, especially those that once cracked us up, should be left strictly alone: nearly 20 years on, this combo, which brings back some more of the originals like Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal, and Asrani, is a dated ungainly mess, more horror less comedy, which only starts coming together well into the second half, but by then it’s too little, too late.

ALSO READ | Bhoot Banglas: Indian cinema’s haunted homes and the tropes that are meant to spook us

Arjun Acharya (Akshay Kumar) lives with his about-to-be-hitched younger sister Meera (Mithila Palkar) in London. Dad Vasudev (Jisshu Sengupta) flies around the globe, talking of Indian mythology. Or some such. That last bit of vagueness comes from the fact that film never really tells us what anyone does for a living: such prosaic information is useless when everyone’s job appears to simply spout loud dialogues at the top of their voices, in the hope that someone will laugh.

There are a few scattered snickers here and there, especially when Rajpal Yadav turns up — right now anything Yadav does is catching a nerve — or when the late Asrani tries injecting some fun in his scenes. Paresh Rawal’s wedding planner roams around, skimming off cash. Some key characters show up so randomly, and so late into the proceedings, that you wonder if they were an after-thought: a guruji (Hussain) who holds the key to a forgotten underground temple, and a lost tree inhabited by a female spirit. Ooh, could the film be actually giving us the semblance of a screenplay?

No such luck. A couple of crucial slips never let the film recover. First off, the age shows: the supremely-fit Akshay was in his prime in 2007; now he is distinctly older than anyone else in the frame – Sengupta has to resort to heavy grey dye, but no way does he look to be Akshay’s dad; Palkar’s character is happy to marry into a family which is heavily superstitious — they get her married to a tree — that’s right, in 2026; and the worst is Gabbi’s cringey romantic track, with all that forced pouting.

The humour is heavy-handed, not a surprise in Priyan’s comedies, but back in the day, it was a time-and-place thing. Aren’t we done and dusted with women bending over in revealing cleavages, risible sequences, sexually obvious jokes? Clearly not. Part of the sharpness in the original Bhool Bhulaiyaa came from its modern take on superstition which kept women bound; here it feels like a tired trope which goes nowhere.

Finally, Tabu comes on and lights up the screen, but the joy is short-lived. On come the tantra-mantra-laden havans, and Akshay gets to fight demons so patently CGI that you yearn for the old bhoots-in-white-saris who used to roam around havelis singing songs.

Monjulikaaaaa, come back please.

Bhooth Bangla movie cast: Akshay Kumar, Jisshu Sengupta, Mithila Palkar, Wamiqa Gabbi, Bhavna Pani, Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal, Asrani, Zakir Hussain, Tabu, Manoj Joshi
Bhooth Bangla movie director: Priyadarshan
Bhooth Bangla movie rating: 1.5 stars