PLOT SUMMARY: An elaborate lie leads to the unlocking of a door behind which an evil spirit was trapped for eighteen years.
In 2007, Bollywood remade a popular South Indian film. Titled Bhool Bhulaiya, the film was lauded for having an intelligent storyline and for being an entertaining comedy.
The story was truly unique and gave insight into how the human psyche can alter the way we shape our future.
The actors from Akshay Kumar to Vidya Balan and everyone else in between, even the actors playing minor characters, played their roles impeccably.
The film was obviously a huge hit with its soundtrack becoming very popular.
Years later, a sequel was announced and in 2022 Bhool Bhulaiya 2 was released.
The movie could be at best called a spiritual sequel considering nine of the characters return and well, not even the director.
The movie tries to piggyback on the previous film's success by using one of the popular songs from the soundtrack, and also by having the protagonist completely mimic the previous film's protagonist.
While watching the movie, it becomes increasingly obvious that Kartik Aryan emulates Akshay Kumar to the T.
What we end up seeing on screen is an actor pretending to be another actor.
And then there is another song that brought chills in the original movie: Mere Dholna...
The song is performed by pretty much everyone in the movie. Again, the filmmakers are trying to hard to insert every element that found success in the original movie, into this sequel.
But perhaps the biggest disappointment comes with the so-called BIG reveal in the end.
I have to say that the Bollywood movie Alone did better with that twist.
Unfortunately, Tabu, who is an excellent actress and portrays the characters to the best of her ability, is let down by a script that tries to drench a horror script with comedy scenes that don't work.
In all fairness, the horror scenes are well-crafted and the movie could have gelled better if some of the scenes in the second half were left at the editing table.
A movie that tries too hard to inject humor where it shouldn’t be just isn’t entertaining anymore.
BHOOL BHULAIYA 2 Movie Plot
The movie begins with a ritual going on. The priests are trying to get rid of an evil spirit that is haunting a family.
The evil spirit lunges at a woman, Anjulika, and starts to drag her out. The spirit calls out for revenge. The priests manage to stop her and capture the evil spirit and imprison her in a room. The door is locked with sacred threads and a Trishul.
The family is told to move out rather than have an evil spirit as a neighbor.
Eighteen years later, Ruhaan meets Reet when she accidentally misplaces her suitcase. He tries to act all charming and pretends to have a sixth sense by correctly guessing her name and revealing details of her family.
Reet isn't impressed. She lives in the age or Facebook and catches his lies. Ruhaan tries one more time to woo her by bringing back her phone which Reet thinks is his. She tosses it aside, and it breaks and that's when she decides she can endure Ruhaan's company if he will let her use his phone to call back home.
At a rest stop, Ruhaan pretty much calls Reet lame and being a nerd. She spent four years on her education which she should have used to party instead. Who cares about being a doctor and all?
Reet, realizing she is a nerd, agrees to go to a music festival with him.
The music festival is unlike any other. There are no star singers playing at the festival or any local bands. Everyone pays to enter tye venue and then have to sing and dance and entertain themselves.
After a song, Reet and Ruhaan head to a bus stop and find police cars everywhere. The policeman informs them that the bus they were traveling on and then had gotten off to attend the music festival, fell into a ravine. There were no survivors.
But the police are gathered at the bus stop instead of the place where the accident took place?
Anyway, Reet finds it necessary to inform her family right away. She calls home and her sister Trisha picks it up. The line isn't clear and Reet isn't using Ruhaan's cellphone for some reason. Trisha says hello a couple of times and then decides to embrace her sister's fiancé and cry about how she loved him and wanted to marry him but not at the cost of her sister's life.
Reet is shocked to discover her sister is in love with Sagar, the man she was supposed to marry. She realizes her family thinks she perished in the bus accident and immediately decides to keep this fact hidden so that her family lets her sister marry the man she loves.
Ruhaan thinks it's a terrible plan but Reet bats her eyes and he not only decides to accompany her all the way to Rajasthan but also help her fool her family.
And so off the two of them go to Rajasthan and then to an abandoned haveli, the very one from the first scene of the movie.
Ruhaan is so smitten he is ready to break and enter the haveli. Not that much breaking and entering is required. The lock breaks and falls to the ground. The doors swing open in welcome. Is it Manjulika? The evil spirit trapped in the first scene?
However, after what is revealed in the end, the spirit really didn’t want Reet to come here.
Both Reet and Ruhaan don't find it very odd that the electricity also comes on. An abandoned house with power?
Reet waves off Ruhaan's reservations by giggling excitedly about all the childhood memories she spent in the house. Ruhaan watches her with a weird smile plastered on his face.
Soon enough, Chote Pandit, who was cycling around the town in the middle of the night, notices the open doors. Reet didn't bother closing after her. She clearly didn't want to be found yet leaves the door open for everyone to notice.
Did she not even consider that the lights being on may attract attention? Again, nope.
So of course Chote heads to alert the Thakur family who barely waits for confirmation that Reet is indeed dead.
The family, upon hearing the doors to their former family home is open, form a mob to find out what is going on.
It's pretty much walking distance so they reach in a matter of time it takes for Reet to divilge three childhood memories.
Reet quickly hides while Ruhaan is left to fool Reet's family by claiming to be a baba who can talk to spirits.
He says that Reet is here and would like the family to come and live in the haveli just like in the good old days.
The family quickly agrees and the move is made although the sweepers take their own sweet time to get rid of the leaves.
No one ventures near Manjulika's room.
Reet is busy nitpicking at her food while her family holds a prayer for her soul. Ruhaan is tasked with convincing the family that Reet's spirit wants her sister Trisha to marry Sagar. The family quickly agrees to that as well.
Everyone either loved Reet too much or are eager to move on with their lives.
In the meantime Reet gets bored and decides that she loves Ruhaan. They declare their love for each other by saying the opposite things. Cue a lengthy song to show how much in love they are.
However, after all the singing and dancing, it is time to bring on the turning point of the story.
First, the only child, a portly boy who is the butt of fat jokes, sees Reet. Ruhaan makes an excuse about how the innocence of a child grants them powers to see the dead.
After the family members are fooled into believing that, it is time for Chote to create some chaos. He claims to have seen Reet too and no one buys that he is innocent enough to see dead people. He is after all in cahoots with Bade Pandit who is running out of business ever since Ruhaan was given the garb and he accidentally solves the case of the missing treasure an old woman left behind.
The family makes a scene and only Anjulika stands by Ruhaan. The family searches the whole house for Reet.
Reet runs about and then drags Ruhaan to the forbidden wing of the house: Where Manjulika's room is of course.
Ruhaan raises concerns about entering the room but Reet scoffs stating she doesn’t believe in ghosts.
She enters the room and wanders about, unaware that the evil spirit is standing right behind her.
When no one can find Reet, Chote suggests they check Manjulika's room. He is slapped promptly.
The search is called off. Everyone apologizes to Ruhaan for doubting him.
He is relieved but then goes running to Reet when the coast is clear.
He is shocked to discover Reet's clothes all over the floor. Ruhaan is unimpressed by his slovenly girlfriend.
He calls for her but Reet has realized that her role is limited to only song and dance sequences.
And so she dances on one version of Mere Dholna. She's dressed in the black dress and has messed up her hair and make up. She performs in a creepy manner and Ruhaan is legit scared.
Turns out it was all an elaborate prank. Reet comes out of the room but Ruhaan can't help but feel eyes on his back.
Afteewards, the wedding festivities are in full swing and Ruhaan is enjoying himself when Anjulika comes to him and asks him whether Reet is upset since she's breaking everything in the house.
Sure enough vases are smashed at walls and lamps burst. Ruhaan glances up and Reet mouths that this seems the work of Manjulika.
Ruhaan tries to distract the family and fortunately nothing happens after that apart from the musical instruments being raised. Everyone is happy with the explanation that Reet was upset because everyone doubted she was a spirit and that is that.
But just then the family spots a woman walking on the side of the gateway. They think it is Reet and comment on her being fatter now.
Ruhaan is certain the woman is Manjulika and gets frightened.
However, it is revealed that it is Bade Pandit's wife who has been performing acrobats. Ruhaan catches them in the act and they decide to stop trying to scare the family.
But Manjulika isn't happy that someone is impersonating her and comes over to scare both the Pandits and the wife.
The mischievous trio decide to leave the village having realized they cannot ruin Ruhaan's reputation as a baba and that Manjulika is now after them.
The family is still in the dark about Manjulika having escaped the locked room except for Anjulika who comes to Ruhaan and tells him she knows that Reet is alive.
Reet reveals herself and Anjulika is happy to see her. She claims to know the truth because Manjulika had come to her to threaten her.
Her story is revealed. Anjulika and Manjulika were twins who came to settle in Rajasthan. They used to dance on Mere Dholna since they were kids, but in bengali version.
Manjulika was jealous of her sister who was more talented than her. Manjulika's jealousy breaks every line of morals and she begins to indulge in black magic.
When the twins grow up, Manjulika develops a crush on Uday. He watches the two of them dance and sends a proposal to the father. Manjulika obviously thought it was for her but feels humiliated to discover that it is for her sister.
On the day of the wedding, Manjulika cuts out a big patch of the wedding dress which no one notices for some reason. It is right from the front and surely someone would notice the bride wearing a torn dress. But no one does and Manjulika rushes off to perform voodoo black magic.
She is caught in the act by her father whom she promptly stabs and then laments how much she loved him but that only Anjulika was his favorite and now it is because of his lacking parenting skills that he is laying stabbed in his own pool of blood.
Her ritual is completed. Anjulika wakes up and in a zombie-like state, removes all her clothing and dons Manjulika's clothes. Manjulika happils wears the bridal dress and even manages to straighten her hair for the big act.
Anjulika, still under a spell, attacks Manjulika. Uday defends her but Anjulika has him in a chokehold. Manjulika happily stabs her sister right in the back.
Uday thinks his wife is brave enough to kill her own sister for him.
Later, however, Uday finds the voodoo doll and calls out Manjulika's name. She obviously responds. Uday is given no chance to understand what is going on before he is toppled from the balcony.
He manages to survive the fall. So...what exactly did Manjulika want? Didn't she want Uday? He could have died. Couldn't she have used her black magic to put a spell on him and make her do her bidding?
However, the whole story is revealed much later with Anjulika/Manjulika giving an account only to the point of when Manjulika attacks her on her wedding night.
BHOOL BHULAIYA 2 Ending Spoilers
It is now Ruhaan's turn to encounter the ghost. He is chased to the top of the roof after which he stumbles. Off-screen his screams are heard.
Considering we don't witness him falling or getting hurt and the fact that he's the protagonist, obviously he is safe.
At the haveli, the lights go off and Ruhaan returns in his baba get-up to perform on Mere Dholna. His sequence is longer than the ones performed by Kiara and Tabu.
Afterward he introduces himself as Manjulika much to the shock of everyone. Reet, worried about Ruhaan comes out from her hiding spot. The family is relieved because they believe that Reet's spirit can protect them from Manjulika's spirit.
That's when Reet has to admit that she is very much alive.
Ruhaan comes after Anjulika demanding revenge. She gets frightened to the point that she puts a knife to Reet's neck, threatening to kill her. In her dialogue she accidentally lets it slip that she is talking to Anjulika.
Ruhaan grins and tells her to make up her mind on whether she is Anjulika or Manjulika.
The jig is up.
The rest of the story is revealed including how Anjulika tried to threaten her to tell the truth but Manjulika smirks and asks who would believe her anyway?
After throwing Uday off the roof she has been an ideal daughter-in-law and sister-in-law. Also, she is the alive one.
The family is shocked and don't care if Manjulika tried to reform her ways and didn’t harm the family after Uday's incident.
Anjulika uses her supernatural powers to throw Manjulika into the room. She then tells the family to go have their happy ending while she deals with her sister.
While the family drives off, Anjulika goes into the room and we hear Manjulika begging for her life before screaming.
The movie ends. Of course, there is a songatn the end: the title song.
The movie completely misses the mark where comedy is concerned. The scenes with the Pandits in the second half slow down the pace and add nothing to the story.
The mystery was predictable. It is obvious that if an actor with caliber, like Tabu, is cast in a role, of course, that actor has a meaty role.
Tabu performs well but as mentioned before, the script is repetitive and a complete letdown.
The movie could have been titled anything else as compared to the first part, this movie is lackadaisical.
Scare Scale: 3/5
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