By
Sharada Iyer
Helmed by director Anees Bazmee the third installment in the horror-comedy franchise, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 keeps us engaged with an exciting mix of spook and comedy. With two brilliant actresses – Vidya Balan and Madhuri Dixit getting added to the franchise, the latter albeit only in a special appearance, the director takes us on an intriguing ride regarding the identity of the ghost – Manjulika, and the surprising twists and turns keep the audience guessing till the end.
Though the storyline is set in current day Kolkata, the plot also involves a story dating to a time-period 200 years back, when the king of the palace had killed his own daughter- Princess Manjulika. The locals believe the palace to be haunted by the ghost of Manjulika, as the princess is said to have died with unfulfilled desires and suppressed feelings inside her.
Cut to the present, we have Karthik Aryan who plays Ruhaan or Rooh-Baba and makes a living by deceiving people into thinking that he has a special connection with ghosts and can connect with them and get rid of them. To make use of this talent of his, one day Tripti Dimri and her uncle Rajesh Sharma who are part of the current royal family, set up a meeting with Karthik Aryan. They trick him into helping them to get rid of the ghost trapped in the palace and in return he is assured that he would be well rewarded.
When he arrives with them in the palace, he is shocked to find out that his face has an uncanny resemblance to Prince Debendranath, who had been Manjulika’s brother 200 years back and the existing Rajpurohit or royal priest states that he is the reincarnation of the prince. Presently, the royal family headed by Vijay Raaz for fear of the ghost have abandoned the palace and are living in a cowshed opposite the palace. As they have hit a financial low, they now want to sell off the palace but before that they needed someone to remove traces of any ghost for good.
Legend goes that the ghost in question had been caught and securely locked in a special room in the palace the door of which is guarded not just by complicated locks and bolts but also by some powerful religious chants and spells and if the ghost needs to be destroyed, this door should be opened only on ‘Durga Ashtami’- a special day of worship of Goddess Durga.
Vidya Balan enters the scenario as part of the restoration team which has been called upon to work on the palace so that it can be sold off. Madhuri Dixit enters the plot only after the interval and arrives on the scene as the prospective buyer of the palace and shows keen interest in every aspect of the palace and the surroundings.
After the entry of both Vidya Balan and Madhuri Dixit, lots of weird and unexplained things start happening and these incidents makes everyone in the palace very nervous and apprehensive. The audience is treated to some superb scenes whenever the two actresses come on screen and those are some of the best scenes of the film. The piece de resistance undoubtedly was the superbly choreographed dance sequence with both the actresses giving their best and dancing to Shreya Ghoshal’s mesmerizing vocals singing ‘Ami Je Tomar…’.
Despite the Rajpurohit’s warnings, the door to the room where the ghost’s spirits had been captured is opened before the ‘Durga Ashtami’, and now the purohit warns about the impending doom ahead and predicts that the released spirit will now wreak havoc and bring immense destruction to all the people involved.
In the quest to find the ghost, the narrative includes incidents laced with several moments of eeriness and some humour. But who and where is this escaped ghost? Is the ghost pretending to be a normal person amongst the whole lot of characters? Or is there something up the ghost’s sleeve this time and has a specific target in mind? The director manages to keep us guessing and all the events lead to an impactful climax which elevates the film by several notches with all the actors performing their roles brilliantly.
Karthik Aryan as Ruhaan or Rooh-Baba, delivers a top-notch performance, probably one of his best till date, and proves that he was indeed the perfect choice for the role. The actor who has improved with every film is superb here especially in the climax scenes. Tripti Dimri looks good but sadly the brilliant actress of Bulbbul and Qala is yet again not utilized properly and is kept more as a glamour prop. There could have been a mysterious aura surrounding her also.
It was great to see Vidya Balan join the franchise 17 years after she acted in the first Bhool Bhulaiyaa which released in 2007. Then she had teamed up with Akshay Kumar. This fantastic actress is a delight to watch on screen and gives us enough fodder to suspect that all is not what it seems with her character and there sure is something not normal about her.
Kudos to Madhuri Dixit to have accepted a smaller role but still manages to leave her mark. She is brilliant and adds the perfect amount of mystery and fire to her character whenever she appears on screen. Her eyes sparkle with venom when she gets angry and makes us wonder who she is!
The comedy by the trio from Sanjay Mishra, Rajpal Yadav and Ashwini Kalsekar gives fillip to the humorous track in the plot and provide a funny diversion especially after a spooky chase scene and keeps us in splits. Actors Vijay Raaz and Rajesh Sharma add weightage to the cast and prove yet again what fantastic actors they are and how effortlessly they can carry themselves in any role. Saurabh Dubey puts up a convincing portrayal as the Rajpurohit.
Music is excellent and choreography of all songs is noteworthy. Sonu Nigam’s ‘Mere dholna…’ is probably his best he has sung in recent years. The kind of emotions he brings to each word gives goosebumps while watching on screen. Shreya Ghoshal yet again delivers a flawless version of the song but Sonu Nigam’s version is probably better. Other songs are also catchy and enjoyable especially the ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ anthem- ‘Hare Ram Hare Ram, Hare Krishna Hare Ram…’.
The film is not flawless. It would have been tauter, more dramatic and more thrilling had the two duets between Karthik Aryan and Tripti Dimri been edited out and more scenes given to Vidya Balan and Madhuri Dixit. But even with these minor hitches, the film is thoroughly entertaining.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 clashed with director Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again as the Diwali releases this year. Trade Pundits are having a field day coming up with new statistics and box-office numbers every day and the race between them continues. Though the latter film boasted of a bigger banner with a powerful line-up of stars (Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Tiger Shroff, Jackie Shroff, Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor), and took over 60% of screens on release, as of today- the 11th day from their release, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 with its novel plot, interesting cast and unpredictable climax seems to have emerged as the clear winner!
Here is the You Tube link of a small glimpse of the dance face-off:
{Note: All images taken from the Internet}