Revisiting Bhool Bhulaiyaa: Akshay Kumar, Priyadarshan film is a thoroughly entertaining drama sans logic or sensitivity

The 2000s was the decade of Priyadarshan films. Together with Akshay Kumar, Priyadarshan created a brand of slapstick comedy films that included Hera Pheri, Phir Hera Pheri, Bhagam Bhaag, De Dana Dan and Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Although most of Priyadarshan’s Hindi films, including Dhol and Chup Chup Ke are remakes of Malayalam originals, Priyadarshan found a way to harness the silliness of the originals to repackage them as commercial entertainers for the Hindi film industry.

Arguably Priyadarshan’s most successful collaboration with his comic muse Akshay Kumar was in Bhool Bhulaiyaa, a remake of the 1993 Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu. Directed by Fazil and assisted by Priyadarshan, Manichitrathazhu won two National Awards and ran for a staggering 319 days in theatres on its release. It also holds the distinction for being one of the few Malayalam films to be remade in four languages, and reap monetary returns in every language.

For the largely Hindi speaking audience, the Malayalam film market remained uncharted territory till as recently as a few years back, until the OTT boom. Thus, many Hindi films “inspired” by South movies were often passed off as original pieces of work. For instance, despite the unprecedented success of Manichitrathazhu and its glaring similarities with the Malayalam original, most Hindi viewers considered Bhool Bhulaiyaa as Priyadarshan’s masterpiece for years.

In an interview with red iff, Priyadarshan admitted that fans of the original might find Bhool Bhulaiyaa reductive to an extent. “But outside of Kerala, no one has seen it. Others are very impressed by the film. The film has opened to a 95 percent collection. This will be the biggest hit in Bollywood this year," he told the daily.

In its defence though, Bhool Bhulaiyaa was one of the first Hindi films to effectively blend comedy, horror and psychological thriller genres. Almost a frame-by-frame copy of the Malayalam movie, Bhool Bhulaiyaa also retold the tragic story of a Travancore family in the 19th century. There was one key difference though. The Malayalam film was steadfastly focused on Shobhana where Mohanlal’s exorcist-psychologist only played a supporting part. In the Hindi version, Akshay Kumar leads the pack. Sure, he enters almost at the halfway mark of the movie, in an autorickshaw he has clearly overpaid for, in a red and yellow namaboli outfit with only two duffel bags. His visual imagery is enough to draw peels of laughter from the audience. Akshay’s arrival does not just signal the end is nigh, it also hints at the shift in the tone of the film. Akshay chases people down long, winding corridors with anklet bells in his pocket, stares them down while they relieve themselves, traumatises a middle-aged woman by littering his conversations with sexual innuendos, and pursues a woman by creepily hanging around her window. But in case you forgot, he is also a psychiatrist charged with treating the “real ghost” of the palace.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa is for lovers of puerile humour. The trio of Paresh Rawal, Asrani and Rajpal Yadav strike up the most bizarre conversions while admitting they are petrified of the proverbial ghostess in the attic. While it is later revealed that the ghost is actually the lady of the house who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, Priyadarshan wasn’t particularly interested in dispelling the myths around mental health. In fact, in the final scene in the film where Vidya Balan turns into Manjulika, she conforms to every trope in the book surrounding the horror genre. Her appearance even makes her family members shriek in fear, although they are well aware that she is not possessed. It wasn’t meant to sensitise the audience about mental health or gender. Thus, a key character is heard saying, “pura pagal khana khol rakha hain yaha,” (you guys have an entire asylum here) or “aurat banne ka shauk hai, kya” (you want to be a woman, eh?)

What it was meant to be is unabashedly foolish, and Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal ensured that not a single dialogue felt out of place, from Hing ki baas aur prem ka vaas ... chupaye nahi chupta (One can’t mask the bad odour of asafoetida or the desire for romance) or jhund banake chalo (let’s walk in a pack). Physical humour also abound, be it Rajpal Yadav leaping every time Akshay says paani, or every exchange between Paresh Rawal and Rasika Joshi, who play husband and wife in the movie.

There are also plenty of well-crafted jumpscares in the film. In particular is the one scene where Nandini (Tarina Patel) is chased by an undisclosed figure around the forbidden area of the palace and then hit by a swingset. Although many of these unexpected occurrences are explained in brief later as to how they were carried out, more complex scenes, such as the one with Nandini, is conveniently left off. In hindsight, there are several glaring inconsistencies that the filmmaker glossed over in favour of dramatic effect. Avni’s (Vidya Balan) condition is also briefly explained before moving on to visual effect-laden mumbo jumbo, where the psychiatrist and a priest get together to treat a mental condition.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa did not quite care about updating the cult Malayalam movie with a more sensitive lens. It was the spectacle film of the year. From the lavish sets, the costumes befitting of a once glorious royal family and the overall visual splendour of Rajasthan, Bhool Bhulaiyaa looked every part as slick as any Akshay Kumar film from the previous decade. In the same interview, Priyadarshan had revealed that the Hindi film was much better stylistically. "In Malayalam, we did not have the budget to shoot in such grandeur. In Hindi, we had. I could use all possible technical advantages the film needed," he was quoted as telling the publication.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa completes 14 years of release this week, and many critics continue to argue about many aspects of the film that will make a contemporary audience squirm in discomfort, especially the bathroom scene where Akshay Kumar’s statements almost border on sexual harassment. But this blockbuster was the first of its kind in terms of horror comedies in Bollywood, with far and few movies (Stree, Go Goa Gone, Bhoot Police) acing the formula. It may have not aged well, but Bhool Bhulaiyaa is still enjoyable to the core if one only decides to indulge in juvenile potty humour on a particularly bland weekday.