New Delhi: Priyadarshan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa made the horror-comedy genre cool, before it was the “it thing” today.
Over the years, fans have compared every release in the aforementioned genre with the brilliance of Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), which was beyond just jump scares and forced jokes with romance peppered over it. Bhool Bhulaiyaa was as much about the sprawling old havelis, eerie corridors, ancestral secrets, Manjulika’s jingling anklets, the iconic Ami Je Tomar filling the air with unrelenting dread, and amid it all – Akshay Kumar in his peak comedy avatar as the psychiatrist Dr Aditya Shrivastav, who gets lost in the ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ web.
This was 2007.
Since then, the horror-comedy universe has expanded with blockbusters like the Stree franchise, Munjya, Go Goa Gone, and so on.
But Bhool Bhulaiyaa’s loyal fanbase has been unshakeable. Precisely why, when the announcement of Priyadarshan and Akshay Kumar returning to the tried-and-tested formula with their upcoming release Bhooth Bangla first hit the media, comparisons were unstoppable and questions doubled.
From exact locations to similar casts, a lot has been discussed and a lot has been dismissed by the Bhooth Bangla crew, on the pretext of it having no resemblance to Bhool Bhulaiyaa.
But is it really?
Same Same But Different
To begin with, the Bhooth Bangla trailer opens with the towering haunted mansion, so central to the story of Bhool Bhulaiyaa. It is the same – Chomu Palace in Jaipur, a 300-year-old heritage site which has been skilfully utilised for its royal facade and mysterious vibe. As it returns in character in Bhooth Bangla, reports state that about 60% of the upcoming film has been shot on these grounds.
While the 16th-century fort instantly teleports you to the 2007 film, what also reminds us greatly of Bhool Bhulaiyaa is the return of the iconic actors beyond characters.
Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, and Rajpal Yadav, who added gravitas to the madness and led the audience to guffaw at their unmistakable comic timing, return in full power in Bhooth Bangla.
Paresh Rawal as Batukshankar Upadhyay and his theatrics to the suspicious supernatural occurrences in the haveli; Rajpal Yadav as the distinct red-painted priest with his high-pitched voice – a look so deeply symbolic that you could not envision anyone else. Asrani too returns in Bhooth Bangla posthumously after he died in October last year.
