Balaji Telefilms Ltd. and Cape Of Good Films’ Bhooth Bangla (UA) is a horror comedy. Arjun Acharya (Akshay Kumar) comes to reclaim the palatial home of his grandfather at his native place, Mangalpur. Arjun’s sister, Meera (Mithila Palkar), is due to get married and a venue is yet to be finalised. Arjun likes the palatial house so much that he decides to get his sister married in the house for which he starts its renovation. But there’s a hitch. No weddings are solemnised at Mangalpur because it is believed that the newly-married bride is killed by a spirit on the wedding night itself. However, Arjun doesn’t believe in ghosts and spirits and hence he neither heeds the warnings of the villagers nor the palace caretaker, Shantaram (Asrani). He even calls wedding planner Jagdish Kewalramani (Paresh Rawal) to the village to plan a grand wedding. But strange things start happening in the house to people working on its renovation and to the wedding palnner and his team. As the date of the wedding approaches, things go so out of control that Arjun has no option but to believe in the theory that the village is haunted. Arjun now decides to shift the venue to a nearby location. But that becomes impossible because Meera and guests from the groom’s side have already reached the haunted house. What happens thereafter?
Akash Kaushik’s story is quite nice but only up to a point. After some time, as the story gets convoluted, it becomes clear to the viewers that incidents are being forced into the story to make it more and more intriguing without caring for logic. The screenplay, penned by Priyadarshan, Abhilash Nair and Rohan Shankar, is often weak. The drama appears inane and seems more like an assemblage of scenes written with the sole intention of creating comedy but without caring for their overall relevance. Things, which are of paramount importance, are treated with such casualness that the audience get the impression that not much thought has gone into writing the drama. An instance in point: Arjun and Meera’s father, Vasudev Acharya (Jishu Sengupta), goes away to Sydney and cannot be reached by the children when as important a decision as holding the marriage ceremony at Mangalpur is to be taken. And what are the lame excuses given to take the decision by bypassing Vasudev Acharya? One is that before leaving for Sydney, Vasudev Acharya had asked his children not to disturb him during his Sydney trip; secondly, they try contacting him on his cellphone but he doesn’t respond. The concept of sending him a phone message never seemed to have occured to them. Obviously, the viewers understand that Vasudev Acharya would never have allowed the haunted village and house to become the wedding destination because, unlike Arjun and Meera, he (Vasudev) knew about weddings not being solemnised in the village because of the spirit. The audience get to know about Vasudev being aware of the back story of the village and the haunted house in the second half and that’s when it gets underlined that the writers had given the lame excuse of Arjun’s father not being contactable so that the drama could move ahead. For, had Meera been able to touch base with their father before Arjun decides on Mangalpur as the wedding destination, he (the father) would have had to tell them the back story of the village even before the drama would start. And in that scenario, the entire screenplay would’ve fallen like a pack of cards. In fact, there would be no drama which would seemplausible if Vasudev Acharya were to know about the chosen destination. And so, the writers make it appear that Vasudev Acharya could not be contacted! Again, it takes so long to come to the crux of the drama that after a point of time, the proceedings test the viewers’ patience. In other films of this kind, the renovation of the house and the wedding preparations would’ve been completed in a maximum of 20-25 minutes of footage, but more than an hour-and-a-half is devoted to this in the long-drawn screenplay. Scenes are repeated to disadvantage. For example, Jagdish Kewalramani’s backside catches fire not one but thrice. Similarly, Arjun slaps Balli (Rajpal Yadav) several times for the same reason: Arjun feels, Balli is lustily ogling at the female anatomy. Despite these drawbacks, it must be said that several comedy scenes do evoke laughter, at times a lot of it. But the second half gets boring and appears too stretched to be true. The climax is not half as exciting as it should’ve been. It is not clear to the viewers as to why Arjun and his grandfather, Dushund Acharya (Rajesh Sharma), are on dofferent sides instead of being on the same side. For, the audience has been led to believe that Arjun is unwittingly doing exactly what his grandfather desired — to instill confidence in people that the village is not haunted and that marriages can safely be solimnised there. Obviously, the screenplay writers may have had a solid explanation for the grandfather opposing Arjun in the climax, but that explanation may have been sacrificed on the editing table. If this has happened — which is what it appears to be — it is nothing short of a blunder.
Rohan Shankar’s dialogues are very good in comedy scenes.
Akshay Kumar does not impress much as Arjun Acharya. He shouts a lot — and that’s true of many artistes in the film. Comedy can be created even without shouting one’s lungs out. Besides, in some scenes, Akshay is clearly seen fumbling in his dialogue delivery or speaking in incorrect Hindi, but the director has let those scenes pass. Wamiqa Gabi is alright as Priya. She hardly gets scope to stand out. Mithila Palkar lends good support in the role of Meera. As Yashodhara, Tabu is okay in a role that’s not of much consequence. She has looked old. Jishu Sengupta lends nice support as Vasudev Acharya. Asrani’s comedy is entertaining. Paresh Rawal acts well as Jagdish Kewalramani but he is repetitive (fault of the writers). Rajesh Sharma is adequate as Dushund Acharya. Rajpal Yadav is first-rate as Balli. He evokes a lot of laughter with his poker-faced comedy. Bhavna Paani makes her mark as Ragini. Zakir Hussain has his moments as Vashishtha Guruji. Manoj Joshi is so-so as Maharaj. Chhaya Vora (as Dadiji), Alex O’Neil (as the British lawyer), Rajkumar Kanojia (as the man running with the electric wires), Sajath (as the bridegroom), and the others do as desired.
Priyadarshan’s direction is not up to the mark. He seems to have overlooked many things and has often not cared for logic or continuity. Pritam’s music is reasonably nice. Kumaar and Yatindra Mishra’s lyrics are so-so. Song picturisations (by Pony Verma, Brinda and Ganesh Acharya) are below the mark as there’s nothing exciting about them. Ronnie Raphael’s background music is fair; it should’ve been more captivating. Divakar Mani’s cinematography is impressive. Stunt Selva and Ravi Thyagarajan’s action and stunt scenes are fairly exciting. Sabu Cyril’s production designing is proper. Aiyappan Nair A.S.’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Bhooth Bangla is not as entertaining a fare as it should’ve been. While the comedy may appeal to the masses, the overall drama fails to engage the audience. It will, therefore, not perform well at the box-office. A losing fare.
Released on 16-4-’26 at Inox (2 shows; in daily 11 shows from 17-4-’26) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity: fair. Opening: quite good. …….Also released all over. Opening ranged from the average to good average.
