Sanjay Mishra Archives

Review: ‘Vadh 2,’ starring Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta

February 10, 2026

by Carla Hay

Sanjay Mishra and Amitt K. Singh in “Vadh 2” (Photo courtesy of Yash Raj Films)

Directed by Jaspal Singh Sandhu

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in India, the dramatic film “Vadh 2” (a stand-alone sequel to the 2022 movie “Vadh”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two prison guards, two women inmates, a prison superintendent and a police inspector are all connected in some way to the disappearance and suspected murder of a dangerous and sadistic male prisoner.

Culture Audience: “Vadh 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the 2022 movie “Vadh” and well-acted murder mysteries that have plot twists.

Neena Gupta in “Vadh 2” (Photo courtesy of Yash Raj Films)

“Vadh 2” is an improvement from 2022’s “Vadh,” by having a more cohesive and more suspenseful murder mystery. Even though Vadh 2 is a stand-alone sequel, this franchise needs to have a more original concept of who the real killers are. Without giving away too many details in this review, “Vadh” and “Vadh 2” repeat a major plot point about who’s responsible for a murder and the cover-up of this murder. Considering that 2022’s “Vadh” and 2026’s “Vadh 2” have completely different characters, this plot point didn’t need to be recycled in “Vadh 2.”

Jaspal Singh Sandhu wrote and directed 2022’s “Vadh” and 2026’s “Vadh 2,” which both take place in India. (“Vadh” means “execution” in Hindi.) “Vadh 2” was filmed in the Indian cities of Bhopal and Mumbai. What might confuse some “Vadh” viewers who see “Vadh 2” is the fact that the two lead characters in both movies have the same first names (Shambhunath and Manju), and the same actors are portraying both of these characters. Sanjay Mishra has the role of Shambhunath. Neena Gupta has the role of Manju.

However, Shambhunath and Manju are completely different people in each movie, which has completely separate plots. That’s why “Vadh 2” is also described as a “spiritual sequel,” because it does not continue the story of “Vadh,” except to re-use one of the “shocking” reveals in this murder mystery. Viewers who know about 2022’s “Vadh” might figure out long before “Vadh 2” ends that “Vadh 2” is going in a similar direction in showing whoever was responsible for the murder and cover-up. “Vadh 2” is less about surprising viewers about who committed the murder and more about surprising viewers about why this murder happened.

“Vadh 2” begins 28 years before the main story take place. A bachelorette in her 20s named Manju Singh (played by Mehar Deol) is on trial for the murders of a married neighbor couple who lived near Manju. Manju, who has steadfastly denied committing these murders, is found guilty and sentenced to 28 years in prison.

The movie then fast-forwards to 28 years later. Manju (played by Gupta) is close to being released from prison. She is in a women’s prison that is near a men’s prison. Because Manju will soon be released from prison, she is in a low-security section where she can sneak outside at night to an area of the prison where she can’t be seen.

It’s soon shown that Manju has been secretly having platonic meet-ups with a widower security guard who works for the men’s prison. His name is Shambhunath Mishra (played by Sanjay Mishra), who is mutually attracted to Manju. (In 2022’s “Vadh,” the characters of Shambhunath and Manju were a longtime married couple.)

On the night of Shambhunath’s 59th birthday, he decides to spend the night talking to Manju. Shambhunath tells her a little bit more about his personal background. He says he’s in debt for the money he borrowed to pay for his son’s college education in the United States. Shambhunath’s son still lives in the United States, is married, and has a daughter named Erika.

However, Shambhunath’s son refuses to visit him in India. Shambhunath’s son is also very ungrateful for Shambhunath paying his college tuition. This is a meta reference to “Vadh,” where married couple Shambhunath and Manju were also in debt because of money they borrowed to pay for the U.S. college tuition of their ungrateful married son, who kept his distance from them as he lived in the United States with his wife and a daughter named Erika.

At the men’s prison, Shambhunath is well-liked by his co-workers. He is the type of colleague who seems to get along with everyone. He is also very observant and doesn’t hesitate to help others. The prison will soon get a new superintendent leader, who plans to instill more discipline and order in the prison. (In India, the leader of a prison is called a superintendent. In the United States, a prison leader is called a warden.)

The new superintendent’s name is Prakash Singh (played by Kumud Mishra, no relation to Sanjay Mishra), who is not related to Manju Singh. Prakash is very stern and is, as someone describes him in the movie, “obsessed with caste.” One of the first things that Prakash asks or wants to know when he meets someone is that person’s caste.

Nadeem Khan has a small supporting role as a junior inspector also named Nadeem Khan, who reports to Prakash. The filmmakers of “Vadh 2” had no way of knowing that after this film was completed in 2025, actor Khan would be arrested in real life for rape in January 2026. One of his domestic employees has accused him of raping her over a 10-year period. Khan has denied the accusations, but it’s ironic that he’s playing a prison employee with the same name as his in this movie.

Meanwhile, at the women’s prison, 22-year-old Naina Kumari (played by Yogita Bihani) is a new inmate who is terrified of being in prison. Naina is vulnerable and sweet-natured. Naina used to work at a bank. She is in prison for embezzlement, which is a crime she says she didn’t commit. Naina tells anyone who’ll listen that her boss really committed the crime, and she was forced to take the blame for her boss.

Because many people in prison claim that they are not guilty of the crimes that sent them to prison, Naina gets a lot of skepticism from other prisoners. However, Manju believes Naina because Manju says she was wrongly convicted too. Manju begins to develop a maternal-like relationship with Naina during the time that Manju has remaining in the prison.

The main prison guard whom Naina and Manju are in contact with is Rajni Sharma (played by Shilpa Shukla), a woman who is in her early 40s. Not much is known about Rajni in the beginning of the movie. However, it’s shown that Rajni seems to give special treatment to certain women at the prison, by personally letting them out at night and then bringing them back to their cells before morning, when more prison employees arrive. Later, it’s revealed that Rajni is a single mother.

Around the same time that Naina starts living at the women’s prison, the men’s prison gets a new inmate: His name is Keshav (played by Akshay Dogra), and he is a cruel and vicious criminal. Keshav is also wealthy and well-connected. He has a high-ranking politician brother named Bhure, who is never seen in the movie, but there are multiple scenes where Keshav is talking to Bhure on the phone.

The men and women of these two prisons are often transported together in the same bus. Manju and Naina were on the same bus when Keshav was being taken to the men’s prison. Naina and Manju see firsthand that Keshav is very controlling, more dangerous than the average criminal, and probably a sociopath who takes pleasure in hurting others.

As already shown in the “Vadh 2” trailer, Keshav is so twisted and savage, he takes a puppy and places it near the wheels of the bus. Keshav then orders the bus driver to start driving, knowing that the puppy will be run over by the bus. The movie doesn’t show the puppy dying, but there are sound effects that make it clear that the puppy did not survive this disgusting act of animal cruelty.

When Keshav arrives at the men’s prison, he thinks he’ll be able to have everyone else under his control. Predictably, Keshav clashes immediately with prison superintendent Prakash, who is not intimidated by Keshav and refuses to let Keshav think that Keshav is in control. Prakash gives the impression that Prakash cannot be corrupted or influenced by a prisoner’s wealth or powerful connections.

One night, Prakash sees Keshav brutally beating an elderly prisoner (played by Jaswant Singh) in a prison courtyard. Prakash intervenes to stop to the beating. Prakash then puts Keshav in solitary confinement as punishment. But to Prakash’s dismay, the next day, Prakash gets a call from his supervisor, who orders Prakash to not only release Keshav from solitary confinement but also to release Keshav from prison entirely.

Prakash’s supervisor says this decision was made due to pressure that Keshav’s politician brother made to “higher authorities” to get Keshav out of prison. Prakash is upset and voices his objection to this decision. Prakash tells his supervisor that releasing Keshav will send the wrong message to other prisoners, and the prison needs to make a punishment example out of Keshav. The supervisor’s response is to warn Prakash that if Prakash doesn’t obey this order, then Keshav’s brother will make a punishment example out of Prakash.

Prakash reluctantly lets Keshav out of prison. Keshav openly gloats in front of Prakash about being set free. On his first night out of prison, Keshav gets drunk with a friend at his house and calls Prakash to taunt him. Prakash gets so angry, he goes over to the house where Keshav is staying and beats him up. This assault is witnessed by Keshav’s friend. The next day, Keshav is reported missing.

The circumstantial evidence points to Prakash, who becomes the prime suspect in Keshav’s disappearance. Prakash admits that he assaulted Keshav on the night that Keshav went missing, but Prakash insists that he had nothing to do with Keshav’s disappearance. Prakash is placed on administrative leave, pending the investigation.

The person leading the police investigation is an inspector named Aleet Singh (played by Amitt K. Singh), a divorcé who has a strong sense of justice and is very methodical in his work. (Aleet Singh, Prakash Singh and Manju Singh are not related to each other.) Much of the second half of “Vadh 2” consists of Aleet conducting interviews until he learns the truth about what happened.

“Vadh 2” benefits from a having a better screenplay than “Vadh,” but the pacing of “Vadh 2” is still a little uneven. The first half of “Vadh 2” tends to drag with some repetition. For example, “Vadh” shows some very mundane scenes of Shambhunath interacting with his co-workers, when these scenes really didn’t need to be in the movie.

Meanwhile, not enough is shown of the blossoming romance between Shambhunath and Manju in “Vadh 2.” Their biggest scene together in the first half of the movie is the nighttime visit that they had with each other on Shambhunath’s 59th birthday. After that scene, Manju mostly disappears from the first half movie, except for scenes where she is seen briefly interacting with some female prisoners, such as Naina. It isn’t until the last half of the film, when secrets start to be revealed, that Manju becomes a prominent character in the story.

Many of these secrets are shown in flashbacks that are somewhat rushed in the last 30 minutes of the movie. In the meantime, Ajeet’s investigation sort of goes along at an occasionally dull pace that adds to the film’s uneven tone. It’s a “slow burn” movie where the most suspense is in the last 30 minutes.

The “Vadh 2” trailer reveals that Shambhunath makes a confession to Ajeet about disposing of Keshav’s body. But Ajeet doesn’t believe Shambhunath because he doesn’t think Shambhunath would have the physical strength do this type of disposal all by himself. Is Shambhunath’s confession fake or real? And if it’s a fake confession, why would he lie about committing this crime?

The performances in “Vadh 2” are sufficient but not extraordinary. In 2022’s “Vadh,” the couple at the center of the story had approximately equal weight given to their pepspectives. By contrast, “Vadh 2” gives much more screen time and more perspective to Shambhunath than to Manju. Therefore, Sanjay Mishra as Shambhunath is given a lot more to do to show his acting range.

Gupta as Manju gives one of the best performances in “Vadh 2,” but she is under-used in the story. The movie doesn’t give enough information to explain how Manju and Shambhunath fell in love with each other. The other principal female characters (Naina and Rajni) are also not in the movie enough, considering how they play roles in the secrets that emerge.

All the male characters in “Vadh 2” are given much more substantial roles in the movie than the female characters. Keshav is the movie’s least-nuanced character (and Dogra gives a performance to match), because Keshav is a stereotypical villain who is so irredeemably and transparently evil, it would be difficult to find any viewers who think he deserves sympathy. The more inscrutable character is Prakash, who is a completely believable character, thanks to Kumud Mishra’s skilled performance.

The immersive cinematography (by Sapan Nurala) and gripping musical score (by Advait Nemlekar) for “Vadh 2” elevate the movie during moments where the “Vadh 2” could have completely languished in monotony. There are some unanswered questions by the end of the movie. Despite some flaws, “Vadh 2” is a solid mystery thriller that borrows heavily from the defining concept of 2022’s “Vadh.” If the “Vadh” movie series wants to remain fresh and innovative, it needs to move on to a new concept about who could be capable of committing murder, hiding dead bodies, and covering up these crimes.

Yash Raj Films released “Vadh 2” in select U.S. cinemas on February 6, 2026, the same date the the movie was released in India.

Review: ‘Son of Sardaar 2,’ starring Ajay Devgn, Mrunal Thakur, Ravi Kishan and Sanjay Mishra

August 3, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Son of Sardaar 2”

Directed by Vijay Kumar Arora

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, in London, and in Edinburgh, Scotland, the comedy film “Son of Sardaar 2” (a sequel to the 2012 film “Son of Sardaar”) features an Indian and Pakistani cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: After their respective spouses leave them, a chicken farmer and female entertainer pretend to be married and hide her family’s Pakistani heritage so that the entertainer’s stepdaughter can be accepted by the wealthy Indian family of the stepdaughter’s boyfriend.

Culture Audience: “Son of Sardaar 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the first “Son of Sardaar” movie, and overly long silly comedies.

Pictured clockwise, from left: Ajay Devgn, Roshni Walia, Mrunal Thakur, Ashwini Kalsekar, Ravi Kishan, Sahil Mehta, Mukul Dev, Vindu Dara Singh, Deepak Dobriyal and Kubbra Sait in “Son of Sardaar 2” (Photo courtesy of Panorama Studios)

“Son of Sardaar 2” collapses under the weight of its stupidity and bloated runtime of 147 minutes. This comedy sequel stretches its main concept (parodying tense India–Pakistan relations) to the breaking point with stale and unfunny ethnic jokes. “Son of Sardaar 2” also has a questionable depiction of a gender-non-conforming person, whose gender identity is mocked in an insensitive way.

Directed by Vijay Kumar Arora, “Son of Sardaar 2” was written by Jagdeep Singh Sidhu
and Mohit Jain. The movie is a stand-alone sequel to 2012’s “Son of Sardaar,” which was a remake of the 2010 Telugu film “Maryada Ramanna.” The first “Son of Sardaar” movie was terrible, and this sequel is not an improvement.

In “Son of Sardaar 2,” Ajay Devgn reprises his staring role as Jaswinder “Jassi” Singh Randhawa. In the first “Son of Sardaar” movie, he was set to marry Sukhmeet “Sukh” Kaur Sandhu (played by Sonakshi Sinha), but that relationship is not mentioned in “Son of Sardaar 2.” Instead, Jassi is married to a woman named Dimple (played by Neeru Bajwa), who is in their native India, while chicken farmer Jassi is in Scotland and trying to get a permanent resident visa for Dimple to live with him in Scotland. Jassi has been trying for 11 years to get this visa.

Jassi and Dimple do not have any children together. Jassi lives with his overprotective and religious Hindu mother Bebe (played by Dolly Ahluwalia), who calls him frequently when she’s not with him. And then, one day, Jassi’s wish comes true: Dimple’s visa gets approved.

When Jassi meets Dimple at the airport, Dimple is accompanied by two people: a man named Robin (played by Mohan Singh Randhawa) and a woman named Disha, whom Dimple introduces as a couple who are her friends. Jassi gets the shock of his life when Dimple tells Jassi that Robin is actually Dimple’s lover, and she doesn’t want to be married to Jassi anymore. Jassi takes the breakup very hard and is reluctant to get divorced.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani Muslim family of musical entertainers in Scotland also experience a bad breakup. Danish (played by Chunky Panday), the family patriarch, is a probable alcoholic who suddenly abandons the family: Danish’s wife Rabia (played by Mrunal Thakur); Rabia’s siblings Gul (played by Deepak Dobriyal) and Mehwish (played by Kubbra Sait); and Danish’s young-adult daughter Saba (played by Roshni Walia), who was born from Danish’s previous marriage. Saba’s biological mother is deceased.

The “meet cute” moment for Jassi and Rabia happens when Jassi is scheduled to have a lunch meeting at a restaurant with a female divorce lawyer who was recommended to him. Jassi doesn’t know what this attorney looks like, so when Rabia walks by, he wrongly assumes that Rabia is the attorney. Rabia is at the restaurant for a blind date, and she thinks that Jassi is her blind date.

When Jassi begins talking to Rabia about how much she charges for her services, Rabia slaps him in anger because she thinks that Jassi mistakenly believes that she’s a sex worker. The matter is resolved when the real divorce lawyer (played by Nav Ghotra) shows up. Jassi and Rabia develop a predictable attraction to each other. Jassi eventually meets the rest of Rabia’s boisterous family.

Saba and her boyfriend Goggi (played by Sahil Mehta) are madly in love with each other. However, Goggi’s wealthy Indian family—especially his father Raja (played by Ravi Kishan)—is very conservative and prejudiced against Pakistani people. Goggi’s family always has armed security guards nearby. Through a series of circumstances, Jassi and Rabia hatch a plan to pretend to be a married Indian couple, in order for Saba to be accepted into Goggi’s family. Many ridiculous hijinks then pollute the movie.

The other members of Goggi’s family are Raja’s meddling and judgmental brothers Tony (played by Mukul Dev, in his last film role before he died in May 2025) and Tittu (played by Vindu Dara Singh), who had the same roles in the first “Son of Sardaar” movie; Raja’s wife/Goggi’s mother Premlata (played by Ashwini Kalsekar); Raja’s father Ranjit Singh (played by Sharat Saxena); and Ranjit’s wife Kim (played by Emma Kate Vansittart), who barely says anything in the movie.

Goggi’s elderly grandmother Kim used to be a pole dancer when she was young. As already revealed in the “Son of Sadaar” trailer, Kim does a pole-dancing performance that goes horribly wrong because she falls and dies. (Mia Lacey Redmond is the pole-dancing body double in this scene.) Jassi is the only witness to this accident. And he’s terrified of being blamed for Kim’s death, so there are more lies and cover-ups.

The Singh family has a buffoonish longtime neighbor named Bantu Pandey (played by Sanjay Mishra), a milk delivery person, who shows up fairly late in the movie, when wedding preparations have been made for Goggi and Saba. Bantu is part of a plot twist in the movie. This plot twist is a desperate attempt to salvage a misguided story.

“Son of Sardaar 2” has fairly good cinematography, but the movie’s production design is garish. A few of the not-funny-at-all gags involve a certain tea that has intoxicating/hallucinatory effects on anyone who drinks it. (You can easily guess that Jassi will be one of the people who drinks this tea.) The movie has some cartoonish animation to portray little aliens taking over brain cells when this tea is consumed. It all looks so tacky.

The rest of “Son of Sardaar 2” is a repeat loop of mind-numbing slapstick and scenarios where Jassi has to pretend that he was a jingoistic military colonel who fought against Pakistanis because it’s one of many lies that he nervously tells hard-to-please Raja. Meanwhile, Rabia and her family pretend to be Indians who are xenophobic against Pakistanis. Gul is either a transgender woman or gender-fluid (the movie never says which), but is not a drag queen. The movie makes Gul’s gender identity a joke when Gul says things such as Gul is a woman on the outside but a man on the inside.

The exaggerated performances in “Son of Sardaar 2” can best be described as “trying too hard to be funny in an embarrassingly horrible movie.” “Son of Sardaar 2” is an endurance test of bad comedy and bombastic song-and-dance numbers with unimpressive songs, including a horrendous scene where several ghosts come out of a graveyard to sing and dance with the main characters. Avoid this irritating film, unless you enjoy having a movie insult your intelligence for nearly two-and-a-half hours.

Panorama Studios released “Son of Sardaar 2” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on August 1, 2025.

Review: ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3,’ starring Kartik Aaryan, Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit and Triptii Dimri

November 7, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3”

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.

Madhuri Dixit in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (Photo courtesy of AA Films)

“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.

Review: ‘Bholaa,’ starring Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Sanjay Mishra, Deepak Dobriyal, Gajraj Rao and Vineet Kumar

March 30, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Bholaa”

Directed by Ajay Devgn

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the action film “Bholaa” (a remake of 2019’s “Kaithi”) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A recently released prisoner agrees to help police fight and capture a drug cartel, in exchange for reuniting with his 10-year-old daughter, who has been placed in an orphanage.

Culture Audience: “Bholaa” will appeal primarily to people who fans of the movie’s headliners and who like watching mindless action movies that are more than two hours long.

Deepak Dobriyal in “Bholaa” (Photo courtesy of Panorama Studios and PVR Pictures)

“Bholaa” takes all the worst elements of bloated action flicks and puts them into this overly long, messy and idiotic film. The police in this movie are so stupid, they leave their police station unlocked and unstaffed while prisoners are inside. This time-wasting junk movie (which clocks in at a mind-numbing 144 minutes) includes every vacuous cliché of movies about cops versus criminals—a rebellious “hero,” who the unrealistic ability to survive violence that would kill most people; gravity-defying and unrealistic fight scenes; a “female in peril” subplot; and formulaic double-crossing and betrayals.

“Bholaa” is also one of the most worthless movies that you could ever seen in 3-D, since the 3-D format adds nothing meaningful to the movie’s action and visuals. Viewers who watch “Bholaa” in 3-D might forget they’re watching a 3-D movie. “Bholaa” was also released on some IMAX screens, which just means that viewers can see on a bigger screen how horrible “Bholaa” is on every level.

Directed by and starring Ajay Devgn, “Bholaa” is a remake of the 2019 Tamil language film “Kaithi.” Six people are credited with writing the “Bholaa” screenplay: Govind Bhana, Shridhar Dubey, Lokesh Kanagaraj, Aamil Keeyan Khan, Sandeep Kewlani and Ankush Singh. It’s never a good sign when so many people have screenwriter credits for one screenplay, because it’s usually a sign of “too many cooks in the kitchen” syndrome. In the case of “Bholaa,” these screenwriters cooked up a screenplay that should have been dumped in the garbage.

“Bholaa” is yet another action movie about a roguish protagonist who has to find a way to save a loved one while battling enemies in phony-looking fight scenes. Bholaa (played by Devgn) is a former gang leader who was sentenced to prison for his crimes, shortly after his doctor wife Swara (played by Amala Paul) was murdered by a rival gang leader. In the beginning of “Bholaa,” he is let out of prison, after serving a 10-year sentence.

Bholaa’s backstory is told as a flashback about midway through the movie, which has substandard film editing and makes the entire movie very muddled. The irony of Bholaa’s imprisonment was that he had given up his life of crime before he married Swara, who did not approve of his criminal lifestyle. However, Bholaa’s nefarious past caught up to him. Shortly before Swara was murdered, she had given birth to a daughter named Jyoti.

Because there were no other family members who could have taken custody of Jyoti after Bholaa was sentenced to prison, Jyoti was put in an orphanage. Now 10 years old, Jyoti (played by Hirva Trivedi) lives at the Saraswati Orphanage in Lucknow, India. She hears that someone has been trying to contact her, but the movie contrives a number of scenarios (some more ridiculous than others) for why Bholaa can’t reach Jyoti over the phone.

The most ludicrous-looking scenario shows Bholaa calling Jyoti on the orphanage phone while he’s driving a bus full of police officers, but then a Molotov cocktail is thrown through the front windshield, thereby cutting off the phone call before Bholaa gets a chance to have a conversation with Jyoti. And the movie expects viewers to believe that Bholaa has the phone number for Saraswati Orphanage, but he can’t figure out a way to find this orphanage. He also doesn’t know how to identify Jyoti when he sees a photo of children at the orphanage, even though her name hasn’t changed, and he could use the Internet or other resources to find out what she looks like.

There’s some nonsense about Bholaa putting ash on his forehead as a ritual, to signify the ashes of his slain foes. Bholaa also has a trident that is used for gruesome stabbings. All of these superficial gimmicks could have been left out of the movie and it still would’ve made no difference to this terribly written story and what happens in the end.

Before he can reunite with Jyoti, Bholaa finds out that he is being sought after by Inspector Diana Joseph (played by Tabu), who leads a team that has confiscated a large stash of cocaine worth ₹1 billion that was going to be trafficked by the notorious Sikka Gang. Diana is determined to capture the Sikka Gang, including its co-leaders: cunning Nithari (played by Vineet Kumar) and his loose-cannon younger brother Ashwathama, nicknamed Ashu (played by Deepak Dobriyal), who wears heavy eyeliner and frequently snorts cocaine. Diana wants Bholaa to help her capture this gang, as part of Bholaa’s parole.

During this cocaine confiscation, Diana and some of her fellow police officers were in a wild car chase and gun shootout on a highway, where Diana was firing a gun from a police car driving backwards. It’s the movie’s opening scene. Diana gets wounded in her left arm, and wears a sling throughout the rest of the movie. But her injured arm is often “forgotten” in fight scenes where Diana moves her left arm as if she has no injuries at all. It’s just more of the sloppy filmmaking of “Bholaa” on display.

Nithari ends up in a jail cell at the police station with other prisoners in the same cell. There’s a long segment of the movie where Diana and her police force leave the station unattended and unlocked so they can go looking for the Sikka Gang. Yes, that’s how foolish this movie is. A group of college students (three males and one female) are visiting a prisoner and are confused that there are no police at this police station. A prisoner asks one of the students to get the jail cell key that’s hanging on a nearby wall.

All of sudden, a 55-year-old constable from another precinct shows up and stops the student from handing over the key. The constable’s name is Angad Yadav (played by Sanjay Mishra), and he becomes a liaison over the phone for Diana in dealing with the Sikka Gang, while he mans the police station all by himself. Does any of this tripe make sense to you? It shouldn’t, because “Bholaa” is hell-bent on being as illogical as possible.

On the outside, Ashwathama finds out there’s an unidentified informant in the Sikka Gang who has been leaking important Skikka Gang information to the police. Ashwathama decides the best way to find the informant would be to kidnap Diana and torture the information out of her. And so, there’s another long stretch of the movie were the Sikka Gang goes after Diana, whom Ashwathama insists should be captured alive. Ashwathama tells his gang members that he doesn’t care if anyone else they fight ends up dying.

There are three other police officers who play roles in this silly story. Devraj Subramaniam (played by Gajraj Rao) and Deep Singh (played by Lokesh Mittal) are both corrupt, while Kadchi (played by Amir Khan) is Diana’s buffoonish sidekick. Kadchi is more comfortable being a office guy who looks at statistics rather than being in the middle of violent fights.

Almost every imaginable act of violence is shown in “Bholaa.” And it all becomes empty and monotonous after a while, especially after multiple scenes where Bholaa takes and defeats several men at the same time. And in typical fashion for action schlock that’s all style and no substance, “Bholaa” has a bombastic and blaring soundtrack music, as if the “Bholaa” filmmakers think that loud music is supposed to make all the stupidity better. There’s absolutely no suspense in “Bholaa,” which just regurgitates the same type of dreck that can be found in dozens of other big-budget, low-quality action movies.

Panorama Studios and PVR Pictures released “Bholaa” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on March 30, 2023.

Review: ‘Vadh’ (2022), starring Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta

January 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Vadh”

Directed by Jaspal Singh Sandhu and Rajiv Barnwal

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Gwalior, India, the dramatic film “Vadh” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A retired schoolteacher and his wife, who are in heavy financial debt to a loan-shark thug threatening to kill them, become in involved in the murder of the thug.

Culture Audience: “Vadh” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in crime dramas about murder cover-ups and don’t mind if the story is long-winded and disjointed.

Manav Vij in “Vadh” (Photo courtesy of Yash Raj Films)

“Vadh” has moments that can appeal to viewers interested in crime dramas, but the editing and storytellng for this overly long and tedious movie don’t quite come together in a cohesive way. The movie’s total running time is 170 minutes, when the story could have been told in a movie that is less than 120 minutes. Too many things about “Vadh” are repetitive. It’s also fairly easy to predict how the movie is going to end.

Written and directed by Jaspal Singh Sandhu and Rajiv Barnwal, “Vadh” (which means “slaughter” in Hindi) takes place in Gwalior, India, where retired schoolteacher Shambhunath Mishra (played by Sanjay Mishra) and his wife Manju Mishra (played by Neena Gupta) live quietly and modestly. Shambhunath and Manju have been married for 40 years, but trouble is brewing in this couple’s seemingly peaceful existence. Years ago, Shambhunath and Manju borrowed a lot of money from a ruthless loan-shark thug named Prajapati Pandey (played by Saurabh Sachdeva), in order to send their only child Guddu (played by Diwakar Kumar) to college in the United States.

After graduating from college, Guddu decided to permanently reside in the U.S., where he lives with his wife and their baby daughter Erica. Guddu has an unnamed job where he earns enough money to easily pay back his parents for the college expenses, but Guddu doesn’t think of offering to repay his parents. Instead of being grateful to his parents, Guddu is arrogant and unappreciative.

Shambhunath and Manju are heartbroken that Guddu has a dismissive attitude toward them. Guddu also refuses to go to India visit his parents. In a video chat with Guddu (which Shambhunath and Manju have to do at an Internet cafe because they can’t afford Internet service at home), Guddu has this excuse for why he won’t visit his parents: “Do you know how expensive flights to India are?”

Meanwhile, Prajapati has gotten impatient with Shambhunath and Manju for taking years to pay off their debt to him. He starts making violent threats to the couple to demand payment in full, or else he says they will be tortured and killed. Fearing for their lives and desperate for money, Shambhunath and Manju beg Guddu to pay them back for some of the money that they spent on his college expenses. Guddu coldly refuses.

As already revealed in the “Vadh” trailer, after Prajapati assaults Shambhunath and does some other terrible things, Shambhunath brutally kills Prajapati. It’s a crime that Shambhunath and Manju cover up by dismembering the body and hiding everything. Shambhunath goes to the local police department and confesses to the crime, but the police deputy on duty—a buffoon named Sitaram Gadariya (played by Nadeem Khan)—doesn’t believe Shambhunath (who looks like a harmless old man) and doesn’t record the confession. Shambhunath goes home and thinks he’s gotten away with murder.

When chief police inspector Shakti Singh (played by Manav Vij) finds out about this confession, he’s infuriated and slaps Sitaram hard in the face. Inspector Singh then orders Sitaram to get Shambhunath back to the police station to record the confession. This time, Shambhunath denies knowing anything about Prajapat’s disappearance. And so begins a “cat and mouse” game between the police and the Mishra spouses.

One of the problems with “Vadh” is that the tone is so obvious in wanting the audience to root for Shambhunath and Manju. Therefore, every plot development seems too calculated to lead to a predictable conclusion. The acting in the movie also ranges from very good (Mishra gives a fairly credible performance) to mediocre (most of the cast) to downright awful (some of the cast members in supporting roles). The movie also tries to have some darkly comedic moments that just seem out of place with the rest of this grim story.

The scenes just drag on and on, with a lot of repetition. Inspector Singh is the type of generic police investigator that has been seen in countless other movies. Shambhunath and Manju made their problems worse, but they have a self-pitying attitude that gets very irritating after a while. “Vadh” tries to be a suspenseful film, but when the protagonists are presented from the beginning as elderly people who deserve sympathy just because they’re elderly and regardless of how many horrible things they do, there’s no suspense at all in how the movie is going to end.

Yash Raj Films released “Vadh” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on December 9, 2022.

Review: ‘Cirkus’ (2022), starring Ranveer Singh, Varun Sharma, Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez

December 28, 2022

by Carla Hay

“Cirkus”

Directed by Rohit Shetty

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the India, in the 1960s and briefly in the 1930s, the comedy film “Cirkus” features an Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two sets of identical twin brothers are separated and switched at birth by a scientist who wants to test the “nature versus nurture” debate, in order to prove his theory that someone’s upbringing has more influence on their personality than biological genetics.

Culture Audience: “Cirkus” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching an aggressively hyperactive and annoying movie with a horrible story about twins and mistaken identities.

Siddhartha Jadhav, Umakant Patil and Ashish Warang in “Cirkus” (Photo courtesy of T-Series Films)

The vibrant cinematography and eye-catching production design of “Cirkus” are all wasted on a silly plot, bad acting and an unjustifiably atrocious ending that ignores ethical and legal issues of deliberately switching babies at birth. It’s a so-called comedy that will bring very few or no laughs to people who care about quality entertainment. The only thing that’s worth laughing at is how the “Cirkus” filmmakers spent a great deal of the movie’s budget on elaborate set designs and visual effects but then made the cheap-looking decision to have obvious toy dolls instead of real babies in the brief time that infants are shown on screen.

Directed by Rohit Shetty and written by Yunus Sajawal, “Cirkus” is loosely based on the William Shakespeare play “The Comedy of Errors,” which has hijinks that ensue when identical twin brothers have been separated at birth. It feels almost like blasphemy to mention Shakespeare and “Cirkus” in the same sentence, because it’s like comparing priceless art to worthless garbage. “Cirkus” is just too repetitive and too stupid to justify its total running time of 140 minutes. About 30 minutes into this abomination of a movie, viewers will feel like it’s less painful to have a circus elephant sit on them than to sit through watching all of “Cirkus.”

“Cirkus” begins by showing the two brothers who cause the chaos that later happens in the story. Sometime in the 1930s, Dr. Roy Jamnadas (played by Murali Sharma) and his younger brother Joy Jamnadas (played by Uday Tikekar) are operating Jamnadas Orphanage in Bangalore, India. One day, Roy and Joy find two pairs of newborn, identical twin brothers abandoned on the doorstep of the orphanage. The two pairs of twins are around the same age.

Roy decides that he wants to do an experiment to test the “nature versus nurture” debate, in order to prove his theory that someone’s personality is influenced more by that person’s upbringing than biological genetics. Roy wants to switch the identical twins, so that each twin will grow up with a brother he thinks is biologically related but actually is not biologically related. Joy vehemently objects to this very unethical and illegal decision, but Roy is determined to go through with it, and nothing can stop him.

The identical twins are switched so that one of the twin brothers is placed with a twin from the other pair who is biologically unrelated. When all four twin brothers are put up for adoption, they are presented as fraternal twins, not identical twins. Roy promises Joy that he will reveal the truth to all four brothers when the brothers are 30 years old. When Joy asks Roy what will happen if Roy isn’t alive in 30 years, Roy gives a vague response that maybe someone else can tell the twins the truth. Of course, in a predictable movie like “Cirkus,” Roy and Joy live for the next 30 years and show up again in the movie.

And what a coincidence: Both pairs of twins are adopted into families who want to name the twins after the Jamnadas brothers. One pair of the fake fraternal twins named Roy and Joy go to the Indian city of Ooty, where they have been adopted by a circus owner (played by Nikitin Dheer) and his wife (played by Supriya Roy). The other set of the fake fraternal twins named Roy and Joy stay in Bangalore, where they have been adopted by an affluent industrial engineer (played by Arjun Nagar) and his wife Shakuntala Devi (played by Ashwini Kalsekar).

After the babies quickly getting adopted, “Cirkus” briefly shows the two Roys and the two Joys as pre-teen children and teenagers. In these roles are Pratyaksh Panwar as pre-teen Roy, Hridansh Gokani as pre-teen Joy, Arya Mahajan as teenage Roy, and Krishna Panchal as teenage Joy. The movie then fast-forwards to showing the brothers at 30 years old.

For the purposes of this review, the Roy and Joy who grew up in Ooty will be called Ooty Roy and Ooty Joy. The Roy and Joy who grew up in Bangalore will be called Bangalore Roy and Bangalore Joy. Just like the brothers they were named after, Roy is the “alpha male” brother, while Joy is the “beta male” brother. Ooty Roy and Bangalore Roy are both played by Ranveer Singh. Ooty Joy and Bangalore Joy are both played by Varun Sharma.

Ooty Roy and Ooty Joy have taken over running their adoptive family’s circus, which is called Jubilee Cirkus, since their adoptive parents have retired. Ooty Roy has become a famous circus attraction known as Electric Man, for being physically immune when holding objects that conduct large wattages of electricity. Meanwhile, Bangalore Roy feels the effects of these electric jolts every time Ooty Roy does these electrical stunts. It’s a bizarre condition that Ooty Roy and Bangalore Roy have had since their childhoods. (No explanation is given in the movie for why they have this condition.)

The jolts are so big, Bangalore Roy can give people electrical shocks that can be harmful if they touch him. Bangalore Roy doesn’t know why he randomly gets these electrical jolts that run through his body and sometimes cause him to convulse wildly. Expect to see “Cirkus” show a lot of over-exaggerated slapstick comedy (that gets stale very quickly) of people getting electrical shocks and sometimes having seizures from these shocks.

Ooty Roy is happily married to a novelist named Mala (played by Pooja Hegde), who can’t get her work published under her real name for sexist reasons, so she uses the alias Col. Vikrant. And what a coincidence: Col. Vikrant’s biggest fan is Bangalore Roy. Ooty Joy has a girlfriend named Lily (played by Radhika Bangia). Bangalore Joy does not have a love interest in the movie.

The only discontent in the marriage between Mala and Ooty Roy is that they haven’t been able to conceive a child because Mala is infertile. Ooty Roy and Mala are seriously thinking about adopting a child. Mala wants to adopt a child from Jamnadas Orphanage, but Ooty Roy doesn’t like that idea. (You know where this is going, of course.)

Meanwhile, Bangalore Roy has a girlfriend named Bindu (played by Jacqueline Fernandez), whose arrogant and wealthy father Rai Sahab (played by Sanjay Mishra) does not approve of Bangalore Roy dating Bindu, because Rai thinks Bangalore Roy doesn’t come from a rich-enough family. By contrast, Bindu’s kind and open-minded mother Chachi (played by Sulabha Arya) accepts the relationship and treats Bangalore Roy with respect. Bangalore Roy has conflicts with Rai because Bangalore Roy wants to marry Bindu, but Rai refuses to give his blessing.

Rai is a blustering buffoon with a sidekick named Prem (played by Anil Charanjeett), whom Rai describes as his “manager,” but Prem is really just a “yes man” lackey and a completely useless character in a mindless story. The scenes with Rai are among the most cringeworthy in “Cirkus” because Mishra’s acting is so terrible. Rai, like almost everyone else in “Cirkus,” is a one-dimensional caricature.

Bangalore Roy and Bangalore Joy travel by train to Ooty, where they want to buy a tea-making farm. At the train station, three idiotic robbers, who have stolen ₹50,000 in cash, are being chased by police. The travel bag containing the money is accidentally dropped at the train station before the robbers make their getaway on a train that also happens to be the same train that has Bangalore Roy and Bangalore Joy as passengers.

The three robbers are nitwit leader Momo (played by Siddhartha Jadhav), who has a ridiculously large pompadour, and his two, less-talkative sidekicks Mango (played by Ashish Warang) and Chikki (played by Umakant Patil), who have utterly blank personalities. Momo is not only one of the most annoying characters in “Cirkus” (a movie filled with annoying characters), but he’s also perhaps the most annoying character that movie viewers will see in any given year.

Nothing that Momo says is funny, as he shouts his lines and makes dopey facial expressions for the camera. It doesn’t help that Jadhav gives one of the worst performances in the “Cirkus” cast. A recurring “joke” in the movie is that after Momo sees an incident of electrical shocks, he hollers, “Shock you!,” in the way that people curse, “Fuck you!”

These simple-minded robbers have lost their cash, but when they see Bangalore Roy and Bangalore Joy in a train car with a travel bag full of ₹50,000 in cash, the robbers decide to steal the cash from Bangalore Roy and Bangalore Joy. Later, viewers find out that Momo wants the cash to give as a birthday gift to a powerful crime boss named Polson Dada (played by Johnny Lever), who dresses like he’s stepped out of a 1970s pimp den, even though this part of the movie takes place in the 1960s.

Bangalore Roy and Bangalore Joy immediately notice upon arriving in Ooty that strangers already know their names and seem to know who they are. Meanwhile, it should come as no surprise that Ooty Roy and Ooty Joy end up in Bangalore and they get, and they also get mistaken for the other Roy and Joy. Along the way, a taxi driver named Naagmani (played by Vrajesh Hirjee), a jeweler named Veljibhai (played by Tiku Talsania) and a bandit-turned-hotel owner named Daaku Bagheera (played by Mukesh Tiwari) get involved in the ludicrous antics.

From a visual standpoint, “Cirkus” has a lot of eye candy, but the movie’s foolish and grossly unfunny story is like overloading on bad junk food. The title of the movie is also misleading, because only a few scenes actually take place in a circus. But even those circus scenes are nothing but hollow spectacles with very little substance. “Cirkus” completely missed a potentially great story opportunity to have the circus lifestyle as a big part of the movie’s plot.

The movie’s song-and-dance musical numbers are adequate, when it comes to the choreography, but the song lyrics are so witless and boring, they ruin whatever impact the musical numbers were supposed to have. The ending of “Cirkus” hints that there will be a sequel with other characters who have a connection to Jamnadas Orphanage. “Cirkus” is an utter failure at being amusing entertainment. It’s more like an overblown, nonsensical and deceptively flashy carnival act that cheats people out of their time and money.

T-Series Films released “Cirkus” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on December 23, 2022.

Review: ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2,’ starring Tabu, Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani

May 29, 2022

by Carla Hay

“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2”

Directed by Anees Bazmee

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Indian cities of Bhawanigarh and Chandigarh, the horror comedy film “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” has an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: In order to get out of marrying a man she doesn’t love, a young woman and her new love interest pretend that she died in a bus accident, while he pretends to her family that he’s a psychic who can communicate with her spirit, and the woman hides in the family palace that is believed to be haunted by an evil female ghost.

Culture Audience: “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the stars Tabu, Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani; the 2007 movie Bhool Bhulaiyaa; and engaging movies that skillfully blend horror, comedy and musical numbers.

Tabu in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” (Photo courtesy of T-Series Films)

A horror comedy is a difficult subgenre to make entertaining because there could be problems with blending tones of being scary and funny, but “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” succeeds on almost every level. The movie’s plot twists and musical numbers are intriguing. Unlike a lot of horror comedies that hold back on being terrifying, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” doesn’t skimp on ghoulish footage (which has impressive visual effects), while still maintaining a comedic edge in the story for several laugh-out-loud moments.

Directed by Anees Bazmee and co-directed by Pankaj Kumar, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” is a sequel to 2007’s “Bhool Bhulaiyaa” but viewers don’t need to see “Bhool Bhulaiyaa” to understand “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.” (The words “bhool bhulaiyaa” translate to “labyrinth” in English.) That’s because both movies have entirely different stars, with the only thing both movies having in common is a female ghost named Manjulika Chatterjee, who is haunting a family palace.

“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” (which was written by Aakash Kaushik and Farhad Samji) begins with an evil female ghost raging through a palace in Bhawanigarh, India. The palace is owned by the well-to-do Thakur family, and priests eventually capture this malevolent spirit, trap the ghoul in a room, which is sealed. Because the ghost is a direct threat to the Thakur family, they abandon the palace and find another place to live. At the time this haunting incident occurred, one of the members of the Thakur family is a girl, who’s about 7 or 8 years old, named Reet Thakur.

“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” the fast-forwards about 15 years later. Reet is a recent college graduate who is engaged to be married to a man named Sagar (played by Sparsh Walla), whom she does not love. However, it’s an arranged marriage, and Reet is being pressured by her father Vijender Singh Thakur (played by Milind Gunaji) to go through with the wedding. She is traveling by bus from Chandigarh back to her hometown of Bhawanigarh to reluctantly prepare for the wedding.

During this bus trip, Reet meets a handsome and flirtatious bachelor in his 20s named Ruhaan Randhawa (played by Kartik Aaryan), who almost immediately asks for Reet’s phone number. Even though Reet tells him that she’s engaged to be married, and her wedding is in a matter of days, Ruhaan is undeterred in showing a romantic interest in Reet, especially since she says she doesn’t love her fiancé Sagar. Reet is obviously attracted to Ruhaan too because she gives her phone number to him.

However, Reet plays hard-to-get during much of the time that she and Ruhaan spend together. Ruhaan (whose family is never seen in the movie) can sense that Reet is independent-minded and doesn’t want to be forced by her family to do things that she doesn’t want to do. And so, Ruhaan tells her that she should just abandon this trip to Bhawanigarh and go with him to a music festival instead. Reet quickly agrees.

Reet and Ruhaan have a lot of fun at the music festival, as their attraction to each other begins to grow. But then, they find out some tragic news: The bus that they were supposed to be on crashed, and there were no survivors. Reet’s family members are devastated, because they think she died in this bus crash. Viewers will have to suspend disbelief for this part of the movie, because Reet’s body would have to be found, in order for her to be declared dead. Perhaps another woman’s unidentified body could have been mistaken for Reet’s, but even that is a stretch of the imagination, since DNA tests and/or dental records would realistically determine a dead body’s identity.

Reet decides to use this bus crash as an opportunity to hide from her family and start a new life with Ruhaan. In the meantime, Reet and Ruhaan decide to hide in the Thakur family’s abandoned palace in Bhawanigarh. While they are in hiding, Reet overhears in a phone call that her fiancé Sagar and her cousin Trisha (played by Mahek Manwani) have been secretly in love with each other. Because the family thinks that Reet is dead, Sagar and Trisha decide to go public with their love affair and get married to each other. Reet is surprised by this news, but ultimately, she’s happy for Sagar and Trisha, because Reet never wanted to marry Sagar.

The Thakur family decides to have Sagar and Trisha’s wedding celebration at the palace, which has been in a state of neglect for years. And so, preparations are made to clean up the palace to prepare for the wedding. Members of the family also believe that there’s a chance that Reet’s spirit has returned to the palace. Reet and Ruhaan don’t know yet that their hiding place is about to be visited by members of Reet’s family and people who work for them. But this “fugitive” would-be couple will soon find out that they won’t be left alone in this hiding place.

Ruhaan is discovered on the palace property, but he is able to avoid getting in trouble as an intruder, by convincing the Thakur family and he is a psychic friend of Reet’s who can communicate with her from the dead. It’s a lie that Ruhaan makes up on the spot, and the rest of the movie is about him going through with a charade that he’s a psychic who can talk to Reet and other spirits. While Ruhaan is able to talk his way out of being kicked off of the property, Reet has been hiding in the palace, but she’s able to see much of what’s going on from where she hides. Ruhaan also fills her in on the details.

Meanwhile, Reet supplies Ruhaan with personal information about herself and her family so that he can appear to be a convincing psychic. There are many comedic scenes where Ruhaan makes over-the-top statements and gestures, in the movie’s obvious parody of psychics. Ruhaan even says, “I can see dead people,” in an obvious spoof of the famous line from the 1999 movie “The Sixth Sense.” News of Ruhaan being a psychic eventually spreads through the community. He becomes a local celebrity and is given the nickname Rooh Baba.

Of course, Ruhaan and Reet desperately keep the lie going and go to great lengths to keep Reet hidden in the palace. However, some people begin to suspect that Reet is still alive, or at least that her spirit is haunting the palace. Ruhaan finds out the story of Manjulika, so he tries to blame any suspicious activity on Manjulika. Other family members who are involved in the story include a cousin named Uday Thakur (played by Amar Upadhyay); his wife Anjulika (played by Tabu); and a boy named Potlu (played by Samarth Chauhan), who’s about 9 to 11 years old.

The village’s senior priest (played by Sanjay Mishra), his wife (played by Ashwini Kalsekar) and the village’s junior priest (played by Rajpal Naurang Yadav) all become skeptical about Ruhaan’s psychic abilities. They also think that Reet might still be alive. And so, the three skeptics hatch a plan to “expose” Ruhaan.

All of the cast members rise to the occasion by playing their roles well. Aaryan has to do a lot of comedic lifting in the movie, since his con game is frequently the focus of the movie’s jokes and shenanigans. Tabu is also very good in the movie, where her acting gets more prominent as the movie progresses. Yadav’s performance as the buffoonish junior priest is strictly for comic relief.

Most of the twists and turns “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” are in the last third of the movie, which has a much darker tone than the previous two-thirds. It’s no surprise that Reet and Ruhaan fall in love with each other. What might surprise people is how the movie ends. “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” has some moments that are more predictable than others. The unpredictable moments are where the movie shines the most.

T-Series Films released “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” in select U.S. cinemas on May 20, 2022, the same date that the movie was released in India.