Anees Bazmee, Arun Kushwah, Ashwini Kalsekar, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, comedy, horror, India, Kartik Aaryan, Madhuri Dixit, movies, Rajesh Sharma, Rajpal Yadav, reviews, Sanjay Mishra, Triptii Dimri, Vidya Balan
November 7, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Anees Bazmee
Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Kolkata, India, the horror comedy film “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (a direct sequel to “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2”) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A fake psychic has encounters with ghosts who have a complicated family history.
Culture Audience: “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2,” the movie’s headliners and horror comedies that are intentionally silly.
“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” is an unnecessarily convoluted sequel that makes this horror comedy neither scary nor amusing. It’s a bloated mess with silly shenanigans and an awkwardly contrived plot twist. The jokes pander to the lowest common denominator, while the story is too confusing for anyone who is not familiar with the “Bhool Bhulaiyaa” franchise.
Directed by Anees Bazmee and written by Aakash Kaushik, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (which means “Labyrinth 3” in Hindi) is a direct sequel to “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2,” which was also directed by Bazmee and written by Kaushik. “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” is a quasi-sequel/reboot to 2007’s “Bhool Bhulaiyaa.” “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” isn’t a perfect movie, but at least it has a more coherent plot than “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.”
In “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (which takes place in Kolkata, India), Ruhaan Randhawa (played by Kartik Aaryan) is still working as a fake psychic named Rooh Baba. He claims to have the ability to communicate with the dead and the ability to exorcise demons from people. Ruhaan has a sidekick named Tillu (played by Arun Kushwah), who is a little person and who is treated in the movie like some kind of circus curiosity instead a complete person with a real personality.
One day, Ruhaan gets hired to exorcise a demon from an attractive woman named Meera (played by Triptii Dimri), whose unnamed uncle (played by Rajesh Sharma) has hired Ruhaan for this exorcism. It’s all a setup. Meera really isn’t possessed by a demon. She and her uncle only wanted to get a video recording of this fake exorcism to expose Ruhaan as a fraud.
Meera’s uncle uses this video to blackmail Ruhaan into going to the family’s Rakht Ghat palace. Why? It turns out that Ruhaan looks exactly like Debendranath Chatterjee (also played by Aaryan), a prince of this royal family who died about 200 years earlier. Debendranath was the younger half-brother of feuding princess sisters Anjulika Chatterjee (played by Vidya Balan) and Manjulika Chatterjee (played by Madhuri Dixit), who both had a rivalry over who would have more power. Anjulika was the eldest of these three siblings.
Debendranath’s mother was a servant, not the king’s wife, so there was jealousy from Anjulika and Manjulika when the king decided to make Debendranath the heir to the throne. People who know about “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” know that the ghosts of Anjulika and Manjulika were the main ghosts in the story. The addition of a previously unmentioned younger half-brother named Debendranath in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” just seems too gimmicky and fake. It’s just an excuse to have a sequel and have some of the cast members portray dual roles.
Meera’s family believes that Anjulika and Manjulika are haunting the family palace, so the frightened family has moved into an adjacent barn on the property. With no access to the palace, the family members have to live like peasants and even have to do things like ration their toothpaste, as shown in a rather unfunny scene. Meera and her family move back into the palace because they believe that Ruhaan is a reincarnation of Debendranath and could possibly help them get rid of the ghosts of Anjulika and Manjulika.
Three characters from “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” make their return in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3”: a local priest named Chota Pandit (played by Rajpal Yadav); Chota’s older brother Bande Pandit (played by Sanjay Mishra); and Panditayeen Pandit (played by Ashwini Kalsekar), who is Bade’s wife. All three of them are opportunists and moved into the palace when it was vacated. They refuse to leave after Meera’s family moves back into the palace.
Meanwhile, the family plans to sell the palace. A renovator named Mallika (also played by Balan) has been hired to make home improvements before the palace is sold. More chaos ensues when a prospective buyer named Mandira (also played by Dixit) arrives and there are signs that the palace continues to be haunted. The plot twist is foreshadowed when Ruhaan appears to be possessed by the spirit of Debendranath.
“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” is the type of sequel that is made only slightly less muddled if viewers are familiar with what happened in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.” The song-and-dance scenes in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” are elaborate with good cinematography. But ultimately, these musical scenes are empty and serve no purpose but to extend the movie’s overly long run time of 158 minutes.
The acting performances are adequate but are overshadowed by most of the characters being shrill and/or annoying. The inevitable romance between Ruhaan and Meera has all the superficiality of the cover of a romance novel. Anyone who sees “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” will not find that much to care about these characters and will not see any reason why this movie needed to exist except to be a cynical cash grab.
AA Films released “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” in U.S. cinemas and in India on November 1, 2024.