Member Reviews

In 2007, Priyadarshan directed Vidya Balan as the ghostly apparition Manjulika in Bhool Bhulaiyaa, with Aneez Bazmee taking over the reins of this comedy-horror franchise in 2022. Akshay Kumar was replaced by Kartik Aaryan, who played Ruhaan—a charlatan masquerading as a psychic, who communicates with and channels spirits. Tabu stepped into the dual roles of the trapped spirit, Manjulika, and her twin sister, Anjulika.

In the 1980s and 90s, we had a steady stream of films about an outsider coming to a broken home, and uniting everyone. Visu almost perfected this template. We saw it happen in the 90s and 2000s too where the setting of the home was extended to a college, a workplace, a village, etc… Basically, Indian cinema loves its feel-good family entertainer space where there are clashes of ego, but all’s well that ends well. There was a time when M Rajesh could effectively milk these situations, and effortlessly conjure hilarious scenes with his oddball protagonists. There was a time when he soared past the generic nature of the central plot, and neatly wrapped it all up with his brand of comedy. Unfortunately, hardly any of this happens in his latest film Brother.

Lucky Baskhar, the Telugu film written and directed by Venky Atluri, employs the narrative technique of creating tense moments before a twist, then retracing a few steps to reveal the events that led to it, at sporadic intervals. The first time this happens, it is an indication of what the titular character is capable of. When this technique is repeated, there is the danger of it falling flat. There are occasions when we can pre-empt a twist, but the manner in which it unfolds brings a smile. This relationship drama woven around a financial scam is Atluri’s best work till date and is anchored by a powerhouse Dulquer Salmaan, who shifts seamlessly from a common man struggling to make ends meet to a shrewd banker driven by the need to make quick money.

Can we let the epics be? Rohit Shetty’s latest film Singham Again - a part of his elaborate cop universe essembles some of the biggest stars of Bollywood to narrate an unoriginal story and borrows the full plot from Hindu epic mythology Ramayan. But at a time when films like Adipurush and the anime Ramayan are already available in the digital space, how good an idea is it to again refurbish a known story and force-feed it through Shetty’s larger-than-life, over-the-top cop universe? Questions such as this and a few more remain unanswered throughout the runtime of the film.

In the first season of the ZEE5 series Mithya, Hindi professor Juhi Adhikari (Huma Qureshi) was locked in a dangerous battle with student Rhea Rajguru (Avantika Dassani) after she failed her the young woman for plagiarism and branded her a cheat. The entitled daughter of a tea estate owner and college trustee, Rhea became obsessed with seeking vengeance, sometimes with violent results.

Keeping with the theme of the franchise, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 also pits an unassuming cheeky protagonist against a spooky haveli with a buried past. The century-old mansion needs to be restored to its former glory and sold, but Manjulika’s terrorising presence in it forbids the owners from doing so. The royal family in dire need of resources, seeks Rooh baba’s intervention. The fraudster takes up the lucrative offer only to find himself tangled in a mess as he discovers two dark forces who claim to be Manjulika.

Some movies are so entertaining that they make you miss the good old days. But others are so vapid that they make you miss good days. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is “others”. You see Vidya Balan, and fondly reminisce about Priyadarshan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) and Pritam’s hit soundtrack. You see Vidya Balan and Madhuri Dixit playing enigmatic women, and think of how well they were cast in Abhishek Chaubey’s Ishqiya (2010) and Dedh Ishqiya (2014). You see a tragic female ghost haunt a mansion and morph into a human social message in a setting full of foolish men, and it’s hard not to respect how fundamentally sound the Stree movies are. You see crows descend from the dark skies for dramatic effect and think of The Crows Have Eyes III: The Crowening, the Bosnian B-movie starring Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek.