Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3

Posted on August 25, 2025 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: We have been reviewing only a smaller number of Hindi movies.

Vampire Bat: Well, we are not that much exposed to Bollywood anymore.

Vampire Owl: Bollywood has not come up with very good movies.

Vampire Bat: If there were such movies, they would not come our theatres.

Vampire Owl: It is such a shame. They still show us dumb Bollywood movies for fans.

Vampire Bat: The so-called superstar movies will come. But they are truly dumb.

Vampire Owl: The Khans and Hritik Roshan will surely get all the screens.

Vampire Bat: Most high budget films without content will get here with more shows.

Vampire Owl: Yes, just put any Khan in there and thrown it this way.

Vampire Bat: We would have wanted Irrfan Khan to be around then.

[Gets a vegetable puffs and three cups of white tea].

What is the movie about? :: Ruhaan (Kartik Aaryan) is a fraud spiritual ghostbuster known by the name “Rooh Baba”, and pretends to be an expert in exorcising spirits and slaying demons who harass people or haunt buildings. But he is actually an opportunist who makes good use of situations and make people feel that he has done something magical and has driven away monsters. He solves problems of non-existent demons for people who always have something to hide. There would always be some mistake committed by a random person who want to put the blame on someone not complaining, and that would be the spirit of a dead person or a demon from another world creating nuisance, misplacing things, setting something on fire etc. It makes him the best-known ghostbuster in the area, and his understanding of people’s superstitions has helped him to set up an office near Howrah Bridge of Kolkata. It is then that he is approached by Rajkumari Meera (Triptii Dimri) who has proof of his activities and asks her to come with her to deal with a paranormal activity in a far away village.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: They leave for this particular place where she belongs to a royal family which has been living in a stable near their old palace because of fear of a spirit that has been living there. The fear has become so much that the whole family has decided to live through a life of poverty forever until they found Ruhaan who is believed to be a reincarnation of a dead prince who somewhat looks like him. This provides them with enough confidence to think about moving to the palace of riches, and after making it look better, hope to sell the palace. He is the only one who is supposed to open the door to a room where a spirit haunting the palace is kept locked, and he is the only one who can save them from the supernatural entity. But he is to wait till the day of Durgashtami to open it, or something worse can happen there. He has to stay there for quite some time now so that he could manage to get his share. At the same time, Ruhaan falls in love with Meera and she seems to feel the same, as he keeps raising the confidence of her family as well as the villagers.

And what more is to follow with the demons and other evil spirits in a haunted palace? :: It is then that a woman named Mallika (Vidya Balan) arrives from a firm which is specialized in restoring old mansions and artefacts. She claimed to replace another employee who had taken a long vacation. There seems to be something strange about her, and feels like too much about the palace and its history is known to her. She stays there with them to further understand the needs for restoration. It is then that another woman named Mandira (Madhuri Dixit) also reaches the palace, after another room is opened. She identifies herself as someone who has come all the way there to buy the palace. She also gives them an offer above everyone else, as she stays there. Now the question remains about what this vengeful spirit really is. One has to wonder what it really tries to achieve – is there any plan other than the ghostly murder of all the residents and the family lineage? What is the worst thing that can happen on the day of Durgashtami? With no real ghostbusters around, is there a chance to save their world?

The defence of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 :: The movie has successfully blended comedy and horror, even though the funny side could have risen even more. The visuals with the old palace and the scary elements remain the fine works around here. There is something that interests one a lot about the old buildings of Bengal, and the feeling of strong history is more in there than any other – it will surely keep us going and wishing for the location to be there for long. There is always some place for twists and some fine scares to happen around here. The fear generation gets active very early, and the atmosphere nicely supports he same. Karthik Aryan has surely added a fresh perspective and freshness to this film. Triptii Dimri does the same, and it is good to see her getting more movies, because Bollywood needs to move on as much as with Karthik Aryan, that much with the actresses around. It needs to find new talents instead of those old superstars from where there is the need the move on.

The claws of flaw :: The humour does not always work, as we often why there is an attempt being made when there is no need, as some of these surely feels forced. The template seems to be repeated, as if there are no particular new ideas to be added to an already existing world, from where this gets the strength, not focusing on innovations. The focus gets the struggle, as too many things get rolled in without justifications, and the final scenes are ridiculously emotional without the required intensity, with the purpose of the evil spirit itself lost in the process of making it appealing to each and everyone even though not perfectly. There seemed to be a feeling of need to give focus to the veteran lady superstars, even when they were never really the focus here. Their presence here seems to be just to add nostalgia and the star value, as these are roles which one of the existing characters in the palace could have done. The story seems to be a little too much deviating from its purpose. As expected, this would not do just to the original at all, with a certain struggle as there is some legacy involved.

How it finishes :: We have watched Manichitrathaazhu and the not much needed sequel called Geethanjali. I have not watched the second part of this particular Hindi series, and therefore do not have an idea how all these have been connected without Akshay Kumar. But I could feel that this particular title could stand alone from the beginning itself. It has surely tried to blend its genres well, but never does it manage to rise to the level of Stree, and it is to be remembered that Stree 2 actually released in the same year. Bollywood does seem to be doing pretty good at making horror-comedies than we had thought it could manage to do. As it depends on the skilled performers instead of both male and female superstars, it moves out of the past, and begins to think better and have some classics. The industry should know that there is a lot of young talent waiting, that too without the nepotic kids becoming weak elements in good movies, something we have witnessed in remakes of movies like Helen – there is also too many of them for the time being. It is not like you say Shazam and you learn acting all of a sudden. Let us hope that the best talents rise out of nowhere and make the industry classic.

Release date: 1st November 2024
Running time: 158 minutes
Directed by: Anees Bazmee
Starring: Kartik Aaryan, Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit, Triptii Dimri, Vijay Raaz, Rajpal Yadav, Sanjay Mishra, Ashwini Kalsekar, Rajesh Sharma, Arun Kushwah, Manish Wadhwa, Shataf Figar, Saurabh Dubey, Denzil Smith, Suresh Menon, Moumita Pal, Shivam Dubey, Surendra Thakur, Kanchan Mullick, Prantika Das, Agrim Mittal, Ajay Tiwari, Yogesh Jadhav, Rose Sardana, Swagatam Halder, Averi Singharoy, Badri Chavan, Arvind Prakash, Parineeta Borthakur

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Bob Biswas

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: I am interested in this from the trailer itself.

Vampire Bat: There is a lot to be interested about, in there.

Vampire Owl: Yes, I feel that this could be my favourite film of this lead actor.

Vampire Bat: Abhishek Bachchan has been in need of such roles for long.

Vampire Owl: It seems that everyone around knows this particular character though.

Vampire Bat: Yes, the titular character is from a film which we didn’t watch.

Vampire Owl: Well, as this is a spin-off, I guess that it is fine enough.

Vampire Bat: You can always have more though.

Vampire Owl: I wonder if that would be possible with more theatre releases.

Vampire Bat: We have shifted to OTT from theatres. The rest will be history.

[Gets some French fries and three cups of black tea].

What is the movie about? :: Bob Biswas (Abhishek Bachchan) is a former insurance agent who has been in a comma for years, and has now come back to his senses, only to find out that he doesn’t really remember anything, despite the best efforts of everyone around him. He is told that he has a wife, Mary Biswas (Chitrangada Singh) along with their daughter Mini (Samara Tijori) and son Benny (Ronith Arora). It turns out that he has earned almost nothing from his work as an insurance agent, and he also understands that they are still living in a small rented home. Mary and Benny tries their best to make him remember his past through different incidents which serve as catalysts. Mini spends all her time studying so that she could become a doctor at some point of time. She is so much focused on the same that she even looks out for drugs which help her to concentrate better on her studies. As she finds a new kind of drug which can help her in examinations, there is also the addiction that comes with it. She wanders through risky territories searching for the same.

So, what happens with the events to follow? :: One day, two strangers, Jishu Narag (Bhanu Uday) and Kharaj Sahu (Vishwanath Chatterjee) approach him, and ask him to get back to what he has been doing the best, which is assassination of chosen targets. He doesn’t really believe them though, and keep on going with his life, as well as meet some possible clients as an insurance agent. Soon, he finds himself murdering a man in the neighborhood, as that person was disturbing his daughter with his loud singing, and this comes as a surprise for him. He continues the murders, as a dealer of the drugs, Bubai (Purab Kohli) and his henchmen also become his victims, with him regaining his lost talents. Later, there are other targets added to his list. Indira Verma (Tina Desai) is in charge of the investigation about a few murders which have happened around. She suspects that Bob and Mini have something to do with them. Meanwhile, there is a war going on between different gangs, and some police officers are also part of it. Still, it is yet to be seen if something can be done about it.

The defence of Bob Biswas :: There is something not Bollywood-like about this movie, and that is indeed the strength here. Shot in the city of Joy, Kolkata does give this film some real life with the visuals and the lifestyle. There is always something different about a movie which is shot in Kolkata, and it is not just about Hindi films – we feel a lovely divergence, and a joy which comes with the nickname of the city itself. This kind of setting also suits the film’s genre-blurring, as it is partly a thriller and at times it is drama, with a good dose of action coming at times and getting stronger by the end of the film, as the mystery is finally unveiled almost completely. The emotions run high around here, as much as the mystery which has the need to get solved early enough. There is also a good amount of humour in store here, especially with some black comedy, often related to murders and death. The same is more or less about Abhishek Bachchan, who has done a job which one would love to remember him for – not like the highly forgettable sequels of Dhoom, which have gained all the money at the box-office.

Positives and negatives :: Bob Biswas can be felt as a little bit slow, and kind of lengthy, considering the fact that in the early moments, it doesn’t pick up the pace. Even when it gets into that crime memory quick enough, the overall pace is still the same – yet, there is beauty in this slow pace. There are also reminders of Hollywood movies here, like The Accountant, John Wick, Gemini Man and Hitman, but nothing much is that clear about the origins and rise of this particular assassin, and instead of making this one an origin story, everyone is more concerned about making sure that this one keeps going towards a possible sequel. The subplot doesn’t really work that much, and the movie could have done well without the same. The Kolkata settings could have also been used in the form of some trams at night, the crowded railway stations and the charming old buses, all good enough to contribute to a tale like this. Also, too many characters are dead very easily, and we also have the absence of a single strong villain here, despite menace being always there. Those who seems to be good enough for the same are also dead early, much to our dismay.

The performers of the soul :: This is Abhishek Bachchan’s best movie in a long time, and one can only be glad to see him in this particular avatar. He has blended in nicely into this character with some special problems. Chitrangada Singh plays the lady lead really well too, and we don’t see her that often these days. Samara Tijori who plays the daughter, also has some interesting work to do, even though the character doesn’t get the dimensions as it deserves. She could surely be a talent for the future. Tina Desai’s work comes as the big surprise, as we have been remembering her for the much underrated, but very much memorable thriller, Table No. 21 which also had a song to remember with her around. One has to wonder why she didn’t get that many big roles, as she makes a solid police officer here too, reminding one of Tapsee Pannu in Naam Shabana and Baby – maybe her character could also have a full-length action movie spin-off at some point of time. We note the other characters too, but not that much individually in comparison to these.

How it finishes :: Bob Biswas is known to have come from the movie Kahaani, but I haven’t watched that particular film, and have manage to watch only its sequel. My only relation there is with Kahaani 2, which proved to be a pretty good movie. This movie is also strong with its themes, as guilt and remorse keeps on running through here, with a church and a cemetery at the centre. The message about one’s terrible crimes coming back to haunt the person is evident, and we see the man going John Wick in style, making the final moments of the film very much enjoyable. Unless you are looking for the traces of a Vidya Balan film from a long time ago while making comparisons, this one is surely a fully enjoyable journey despite the slower pace at parts. There is always something about this film, and you have to keep the Bollywood-style requirements away, as this one completely moves away from that mindless comedy. With the theatres opening again, these OTT films have to be very good to keep one watching things online, and Bob Biswas succeeds in doing the same.

Release date: 3rd December 2021 (ZEE5)
Running time: 131 minutes
Directed by: Diya Annapurna Ghosh
Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Chitrangada Singh, Paran Bandopadhyay, Purab Kohli, Barun Chanda, Bhanu Uday, Amar Upadhyay, Kanchan Mullick, Samara Tijori, Ronith Arora, Ditipriya Roy, Karanuday Jenjani, Vishwanath Chatterjee, Kunal Verma, Pabitra Rabha, Yusuf Hussain, Tina Desai, Rajatabha Dutta