Bhooth Bangla starts with a pretty straightforward plan – Arjun Acharya (Akshay Kumar) inherits an enormous ancestral palace in the sleepy town of Mangalpur, intending to use it for his sister’s wedding, but unfortunately, the locals are terrified of the place, strange things start happening almost immediately, and Arjun soon discovers that the palace has a history considerably more complicated than an inconveniently large family home.
The Wedding Venue From Hell
Arjun arrives expecting to organise a wedding, but the palace has other ideas, where the locals are already frightened of the building, and once the strange incidents begin, it becomes obvious that there is something supernatural going on.
There is also a much bigger mystery involving the people around him, including Yashodara (Tabu), Priya (Wamiqa Gabbi), Vasudev (Jisshu Sengupta) and the rest of the rather large collection of characters who become caught up in the chaos.
And because this is a Priyadarshan horror comedy, nobody is going to spend three hours sitting quietly in a dark corridor waiting for the ghost to appear. – the supernatural stuff is constantly being interrupted by arguments, slapstick and characters behaving exactly as sensibly as you’d expect people in an Indian horror comedy to behave.
Trailer
Priyadarshan and an Old Partnership Returns
Bhooth Bangla is directed by Priyadarshan, with Aakash Kaushik credited with the story and Priyadarshan, Rohan Shankar and Abilash Nair handling the screenplay, while Rohan Shankar also wrote the dialogue – the cast is also stacked with familiar faces – Akshay Kumar, Tabu, Paresh Rawal, Wamiqa Gabbi, Jisshu Sengupta, Rajpal Yadav, Mithila Palkar, Manoj Joshi, Asrani and Rajesh Sharma, among others.
The big production fact here is the reunion of Akshay Kumar and Priyadarshan after 14 years, where their previous collaborations include some of the biggest Hindi comedy hits of the 2000s, so Bhooth Bangla is deliberately playing with that history rather than pretending this is some completely random pairing – and there is another familiar connection too – Sabu Cyril is the production designer, Pritam provides the music, and Priyadarshan’s son Sidharth Priyadarshan is credited as the VFX supervisor.
That Palace Should Look Familiar
One of the fun facts about Bhooth Bangla is that the palace used for the film is the same location associated with Bhool Bhulaiyaa, which obviously isn’t something the marketing is going to let horror-comedy fans forget, and the resemblance has already been noticed by audiences who spotted the location in the teaser.
That inevitably creates comparisons with Bhool Bhulaiyaa, especially because both films bring Akshay Kumar, Priyadarshan-style comedy and a haunted palace together, but Bhooth Bangla isn’t officially presented as a sequel, it is its own story, with Arjun inheriting the property and discovering its supernatural history while trying to host his sister’s wedding.
Still, using that location is a pretty obvious bit of nostalgia, and I’m not complaining.
Horror With a Scientific Explanation?
Another interesting thing Priyadarshan and Akshay Kumar have been talking about recently is the idea that even fantasy and supernatural films should have internal logic – Priyadarshan has specifically discussed giving Bhooth Bangla a scientific angle, rather than simply asking audiences to accept every supernatural event because “it’s a ghost movie”.
Akshay has made a similar point, arguing that even films involving supernatural powers should have some sort of logic behind what happens, and that is actually quite an interesting approach for a film that looks this deliberately ridiculous.
You’ve got ghosts, rituals, possession and a giant demon, but apparently there is still supposed to be an explanation for at least some of what we’re seeing – whether that works or just makes the whole thing even more bizarre is another question.
Nearly Three Hours of Ghosts, Comedy and Chaos
At around 163 minutes, Bhooth Bangla is not exactly a quick little horror comedy, and that is a long time to spend inside a haunted palace, but it is clearly going for the full Bollywood treatment, and I think that is probably the best way to approach it.
This isn’t trying to be The Medium or Tumbbad – it’s Priyadarshan making a giant Hindi horror comedy with Akshay Kumar, and once you know that, the whole thing makes considerably more sense, and hopefully horror actually holds up underneath all the comedy.
Check out some more Indian horror movies.
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