Date:14/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/14/stories/2007101458440200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Better give this one a miss Film Review

Film: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan

Director: Priyadarshan

A couple of weeks after ‘Dhol’ fell silent, Priyadarshan is here with ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’, a film that many would have expected to laugh and giggle their way through. Not to be.

Predictable stuff

More is the pity because over the years we have become accustomed to a certain brand of filmmaking from the man. Here, however, the laughs run dry pretty soon. And those which are there with old hands at comedy, notably, Akshay Kumar, Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal and Asrani, seem forced. Nothing is natural about the jokes. We are told there is an old room that stays locked in a haveli because a ghost resides there.

But a foreign-returned Shiney Ahuja and his foreign wife Vidya Balan, do not believe in ghosts. So they go and live in the haunted mansion. Soon, it rains tragedies in the family! Who is responsible for it?

Never mind, the film’s narration is tardy enough to keep you from being interested.

ZIYA US SALAM