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In this horror comedy movie, Kartik Aaryan returns as Ruhaan or Rooh Baba, a self-proclaimed ghostbuster. We find him swindling people out of their money by claiming to get rid of evil spirits possessing their family members or haunting their houses. However, his pretty profitable career brings him to a new case in which he comes face to face with something he is not prepared to deal with an actual, honest-to-goodness ghost.

There was a time, not long ago, when Hindi blockbuster cinema could stand on its own — distinguishable, say, from mythological soap operas and tacky non-fiction programming on satellite TV. But the laziness and opportunism of the last few years have all but vaporized that distinction. It leaves the theatre-going audience in two minds. Adipurush (2023) was laughably inept yet insistently pious and grim. The same applies to Singham Again, ostensibly an action potboiler and an Avengers-like ‘team-up’ movie but playing like an ad for the tourism ministry’s Ramayana trail.

A couple of corpses disappear from a morgue. Police officer Amiya (Gaurab Chakrabarty) and his team start investigating. They learn about a little stinky monster, Genu, who reminds him of an old story. Amiya and Titas (Anindita Bose) remember that their old friend Sanjay (Anujoy Chatterjee) told them a story of a similar monster 10 years ago and both the descriptions match. That’s when Amiya seeks help from Bhaduri Moshai (Chiranjeet Chakraborty).

‘लड़की के मुंह में नमक डाल कर मुंह दबा देते थे, या फिर यूरिया खाद डाल देते थे, कई बार गर्दन पकड़ कर भी मरोड़ देते थे तो बच्ची मर जाती थी।’ बिहार के गांवों में दाई का काम करने वाली महिलाएं जब यह कहती हैं तो सुन कर दिल दहल जाता है। सच तो यह है कि बी.बी.सी. के यू-ट्यूब चैनल पर आई एक घंटे की डॉक्यूमैंट्री ‘द मिडवाइफ्स कन्फैशन’ (The Midwife’s Confession) देखते हुए दिल एक बार नहीं, कई बार दहलता है, बेचैन होता है, चौंकता है, उछलता है और डूबने भी लगता है।

In the festive season, director Anees Bazmee tells cinegoers to bring in the popcorn and he would deliver the comic twists. This Deepavali, the director lights up a green cracker that leaves a purple patch in the air but in a bid to be progressive, he fails to keep his traditional comedic pot on the boil and underutilises powerhouse performers like Madhuri Dixit and Vidya Balan to light up the screen.

This is a good time to a make a ‘horror-comedy’ in Hindi cinema, in this case, rehash a film with a sequel of an established franchise. In this genre, you don’t really have to focus on the horror part (the audience laughs at it anyway, in many cases, it is nervous laughter) and for the comedy part, you just have to put a few characters in a ‘horror’ situation and voila, the comedy element is sorted.