Bhooth Bangla Review: If This Is What Priyadarshan-Akshay Kumar Reunion Looks Like; DON'T Make Hera Pheri 3

Bhooth Bangla

In Theatres

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Tabu, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Wamiqa Gabbi, Asrani, Jisshu Sengupta, Mithila Palkar & more

Directed By: Priyadarshan

Produced By: Ektaa Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor & Akshay Kumar

Rating: 1.5/5

There’s a very specific kind of chaos that makes you laugh. And then there’s Bhooth Bangla, the kind that makes you question your life choices, your patience, and the exact moment you decided this was a good idea.

The film opens with Akshay Kumar getting married to a tree. Not metaphorically. Not in a “this means something deeper” way. Just… a tree. In London. While his “family” stands around looking like they’ve been cast from three different timelines. Mithila Palkar is his sister but looks half his age, and Jisshu Sengupta is his father but looks younger than him.

And everyone is dead serious. That’s the first sign. When a film is this committed to nonsense, you either surrender… or you slowly start losing your mind.

Somewhere in There, There Is a Story

Buried under all the noise, there is technically a plot. Arjun lands in Mangalpur to claim his inherited palace and get his sister Meera married. Standard setup. Except the palace is haunted, cursed, shaapit, all of the above. Enter Vadhusur, the demon who thrives on killing brides after their wedding night. Thirteen brides, ultimate power. And guess who is conveniently lined up to be number thirteen? Of course, Meera. You’d think this sets up a solid horror-comedy. Folklore, tension, family stakes, a looming supernatural threat. But no. The film treats its own story like background decoration. Things happen, people shout, scenes cut abruptly, and you sit there trying to connect dots that simply do not want to be connected.

The Comedy That Kills… Your Soul

Let’s talk about the “comedy,” because this film really wants you to. Priyadarshan, who once gave us Bhool Bhulaiyaa, seems to have opened his old script folder, picked out the most overused lines, and said, “Let’s go again.” And they keep coming. “Time kya hua? Time boht kharab chal raha hai.” “Mandir ka ghanta hoon…” “Baap ko mat sikha.” “Behen darr gai! Behen darr gai!” “Ise mahal kyun bolte ho, khandar ghoshit kyun nahi kar dete?”

You hear them once, you sigh. You hear them again, you stare. By the third time, you’re mentally checking out. It’s not nostalgia. It’s recycling without effort. The humour here is loud, desperate, and painfully outdated. People are slapping each other, falling over, screaming punchlines like they’re in a competition for who can be the most exhausting. Add in random double-meaning jokes, “mooli ke parathe,” “aankhon se biryani bana raha hai” and you realise the film isn’t even trying to be clever. Not one joke lands. Not one. And that’s almost impressive in its own tragic way.

Three Hours of Talking… About Nothing

This film is nearly three hours long. Let that sink in. Three hours of people talking. Yelling. Overreacting. Explaining things that don’t matter. The first half feels like being trapped in a room where everyone is speaking at the same time, and no one is making sense. Scenes stretch endlessly, jokes are dragged beyond their expiry date, and random things just… happen. Someone enters, drops a plate dramatically (because obviously that means “something is wrong”), everyone reacts like it’s groundbreaking information, and then we move on like nothing happened. You keep waiting for the film to settle. To find rhythm. To make a point. It doesn’t.

Second Half: Oh, So Now There’s a Film?

Somewhere after the interval, Bhooth Bangla suddenly remembers it has a story to tell. We get backstory. Folklore. A glimpse into the past. Akshay Kumar shows up in a double role as Madhav, wearing wigs and moustaches so questionable they deserve their own spin-off horror film. Tabu appears with a tragic arc and even performs a classical dance that feels like a confused cousin of what we saw in Bhool Bhulaiyaa.

And for a brief, fleeting moment… you think, “Okay, something is happening.” The second half is actually more digestible. There is at least a story, even if it’s predictable and flat. There are layers, even if they arrive far too late. But the horror? Still diluted. The suspense? Missing. The emotional payoff? Barely registers. By the time the climax arrives with Arjun heroically fighting the demon, you’re less invested and more relieved that it’s ending.

Performances: What Is Everyone Doing?

This is where it gets truly baffling. You have actors like Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Tabu, people who can carry entire films on their shoulders. And here, they look… lost. Akshay Kumar spends most of the first half shouting. Constantly. Aggressively. You start wondering if Arjun is okay, because why is he this angry all the time? Is he PMSing? It’s not intensity, it’s just noise. Rajpal Yadav is doing something that feels like it should matter later. It doesn’t. His track just… floats away, unresolved. Wamiqa Gabbi walks in, walks out, and somehow gets a full-blown romance arc with Akshay that makes zero sense. They meet, fall in love, propose, and dance in a jungle like they’ve known each other for lifetimes, all in what feels like five days. It’s rushed, random, and completely unnecessary. And Tabu? She shows up, brings some grace, performs, and leaves you wondering why she signed this in the first place.

What Else Goes Wrong (Because There’s More)

Just when you think the film has exhausted all its missteps, it finds new ones. The sibling dynamic between Akshay and Mithila Palkar never quite settles. It’s emotionally hollow, awkwardly written, and because of the visible age gap, it never feels convincing enough to anchor the stakes the film is aiming for. You’re told to care about Meera being the target, but the film doesn’t build that urgency, it assumes it. Then there’s the strange aftertaste this leaves when you think about the Bhool Bhulaiyaa legacy. For all the noise around Kartik Aaryan stepping into that space in the newer films, you almost find yourself rethinking that debate. At least those films knew what they were trying to be. Here, you’re stuck watching a version that has the original’s face but none of its soul. Even tonally, the film keeps tripping over itself. One moment it’s cracking juvenile, borderline uncomfortable jokes, the next it’s throwing in graphic elements like a random beheading, and then suddenly asking you to invest emotionally in folklore and tragedy. It doesn’t blend, it clashes.

And somewhere in all this chaos, you realise the biggest miss: this film had everything, a strong cast, a familiar genre, a proven director and still managed to feel completely empty.

Priyadarshan, What Happened?

This is the part that stings. Because Priyadarshan knows this genre. He’s done it before, and done it brilliantly with Bhool Bhulaiyaa. But Bhooth Bangla feels like a lazy echo of that success. Same template. Same haunted haveli. Same mix of horror and comedy. Just… worse. In every possible way. It’s like someone took all the Bhool Bhulaiyaa films, mashed them together, removed whatever made them work, and stretched the leftovers into a three-hour film. Add in unnecessary graphic moments, outdated gags, and endless callbacks, and you’re left with something that feels stuck in time, and not in a good way.

The Final Breakdown: A Disaster You Can’t Unsee

By the end of Bhooth Bangla, you’re not scared. You’re not amused. You’re just… tired. The first half is chaotic, bizarre, and almost impossible to sit through. The second half tries to fix things but only manages to be mildly watchable. The film is all over the place, tonally, narratively, emotionally.

There is no solid horror. There is no working comedy. There is barely a coherent story. And yet, it goes on. And on. And on. If this is what a Priyadarshan–Akshay Kumar comeback looks like, maybe some things are better left in the past, and 'Hera Pheri 3' never gets made. Honestly, you might walk out needing a minute. Maybe a long walk. Maybe a therapy session.