Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 review: Tabu steals the show in this mindless entertainer

Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani's Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 can be considered a spiritual sequel to Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan's Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), because, like in the 2007 film, the wandering spirit in Anees Bazmee's updated version is named Manjulika. Unlike Priyadarshan's film, however, the sequel takes a detour from the psychological thriller element to become a horror comedy.

Also, unlike its predecessor, the film does not try to offer any scientific justification for any of the spookiness and weird happenings in the haveli. Instead, it simply suggests that ghosts exist and are not the result of hallucination or some mental illness.

The film opens with an elaborate spooky scene where a baba is performing some black magic to lock the evil Manjulika's spirit in a room. We see Tabu being dragged around the house by this evil spirt. The family soon abandons the mansion and shifts elsewhere.

Eighteen years later, an accidental meeting between the young and handsome but unemployed wanderer Ruhan Randhawa (Kartik Aaryan) and the studious Reet (Kiara Advani) sets off a chain of events which leads to Ruhan accompanying Reet to the haunted mansion, where Manjulika's spirit has been waiting for 18 years for someone to let her out so she can take her revenge.

One lie leads to another and the lies keep multiplying, bringing Reet's family to the haunted mansion and forcing our happy-go-lucky wanderer to turn into Rooh Baba (literally, a shaman).

The term Bhool Bhulaiyaa means a complex maze from which it is not easy to find one's way out. Despite occasional hiccups, Priyadarshan's film had used its maze quite brilliantly, but this Bhool Bhulaiyaa is too simple to lose your way in, which kills the joy of working your way out.

Farhad Samji and Aakash Kaushik's script caters to an audience for which logic and reasoning take a back seat. The film is best enjoyed with suspension of disbelief. And mind you, you will need to suspend disbelief a lot.

The first half is filled with madness and chaos as Reet's family arrives to take up residence in the mansion. The family's oddball members, especially her chacha Chaudhary (Rajesh Sharma) and his kid Potlu (Siddhant Ghegadmal), offer ample opportunities for the writers to come up with as many silly jokes as possible.

The film doesn't bore you for the most part as there are enough characters with their own quirks to keep you entertained when nothing much is happening to take the plot forward.

The film also has a trio comprising Rajpal Yadav, Sanjay Mishra and Ashwini Kaslekar. Except for some chuckles here and there, the rest of their buffoonery falls flat. It's not the artistes' fault though. They do they best to be as loud as possible, but the jokes themselves are lame.

The second half focuses on some shocking revelations and flashbacks. It also has some funny moments, but it starts to lose its charm towards the climax because those revelations don't have much shock value.

The biggest problem is that in trying to cater to the audience's newfound love for horror comedy, the film compromises on some genuinely scary moments that could have sent shivers down the viewer's spine, especially in the latter part. A boy floating in the sky, a man being thrown around a hall like a tennis ball, scenes like these would have made a lot more impact if they had been used to instil fear about the vengeful spirit instead of just trying to cut some poor jokes.

Kartik Aaryan seeks to bring his own charm to the film without trying to match Akshay Kumar's memorable performance in the 2007 film. He tries to establish himself as an appealing comic lead and even succeeds to an extent, but those who have seen Akshay Kumar's performance are unlikely to be satisfied with this occasional brilliance. The actor is decent when he has to pretend to be the tantrik Rooh Baba, but his performance as Ruhan leaves a lot to be desired.

The writers deserve an equal share of the blame for creating such a bland character. Ruhan has no charm or, for that matter, any other quality to make us root for him. Kiara Advani looks absolutely gorgeous, but that's it. It doesn't help at all that both characters are like empty shells and we learn nothing about them throughout the film. In fact we don't learn anything about any character except, of course, Manjulika.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2's highlight is Tabu. The actress has shown her talent in umpteen movies, in many of which she was the sole saving grace. Here, too, Tabu lifts this mindless entertainer and makes it a decent 'timepass' film with her dedicated performance. The other supporting artistes like Milind Gunaji and Amar Upadhyay have got no scope to show what they are capable of.

The film also falters in the technical aspects, especially the cinematography. Manu Anand's camera does not help to create a sense of dread when things start to go downhill for Reet's family. Also the way the 'Mere Dholna 2.0' song has been shot and choreographed doesn't come anywhere close to the original. Bunty Nagi's editing should have been tighter. He could have easily shortened the film by at least 10 minutes.

Another thing this spiritual sequel lacks is a memorable soundtrack. Making Arijit Singh sing a song does not automatically make it a good number. I had to listen to Shreya Ghoshal's original from the 2007 film just to get rid of the bad taste left by 'Mere Dholna 2.0'.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 was released in cinema halls across India today.