Manichitrathazhu (Malayalam Film, 1993) falls into the list of such classic movies which have been recreated horribly into so many languages. I am all in for a decent remake of a movie from any language, even adapting it to suit your target audience is also great.
For 1993, the movie indeed was ahead of its time, but when you remake the movie 14 years later, you cannot mock the intelligence of the audience, with an oversimplified plot and generic performances. What Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) did with Manichitrathazhu was just butchering the whole script with overacting and unnecessary elements (still trying to erase from my memory, the annoying portrayal of a psychiatrist by Akshay Kumar).
Yet the award for most destruction to the original classic goes to Tamil remake of the movie called ‘Chandramukhi’.
Why am I ranting about Bhool Bhulaiyaa 1, of which Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 is not even a true sequel? Well, one because the movie tries to cash in on the retainable nostalgic elements from the first movie and two, because history is repeating itself. If first part was a classic being remade, then second part took inspiration or let’s say the only clever point, from a decent Telugu thriller film called, Charulata (2015) which itself was inspired from a Thai film. Just like Manichitrathazhu, the movie has been recreated in Malayalam (Geethaanjali) and surprise…. in Hindi too.
The movie which was about sibling rivalry originally, became a sex horror genre in Hindi, called Alone. It was indeed a box office flop, so naturally Anees Bazmee found the opportunity and created a raita of it in his plot.
Similarities doesn’t end there, the best part, no, scratch that, the only good thing about Bhool Bhulaiyaa 1, was a decent performance by Vidya Balan, the semi-classical ‘Ami Je Tomar’ and the catchy number ‘Hare Raam’. In Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, the only saving aspects are similar; an amazing performance by Tabu, an engaging background score by Sandeep Shirodkar what the first part lacked and two tracks (Ami Je Tomar – different versions sung beautifully by Arijit Singh and a lazy remix of ‘Hare Ram’). While Manjulika’s identity was Bengali in part one, in the second part, the whole plot unnecessarily adds to the myth around black magic and Bengali culture. When the first movie tried to burst the myths around ghosts and possession using mental health, second part completely throws that aspect in dustbin and takes audience back to square one, of misconceptions.
Tabu is an actress I admire and she time and again goes on vacay with such projects. I hope she gets to have fun and is paid well, because she is the only person who demands your attention while on screen. The rest is a cringe fest of poorly written jokes still feeding on disability, sexism and fat shaming in an anyway muddled script.
Kartik Aaryan is trying hard to break out of his monologue mouthing, troubled man-child typecasting, but struggles with a badly written narrative. Although, he does gets to impress in parts especially during displays of a possessed behavior, hope he gets better projects.
Kiara Advani, I am loosing hope on with each project she is choosing. Apart from Lust story and Guilty, I haven’t seen her in anything promising but she is in almost all the narratives, where she gets to look pretty and nothing more. In an odd way though amidst this chaos, Kartik and Kiara’s chemistry is evident.
If this was music video of pretty people romancing over picturesque locations, these two would have been an ideal pair. Yup, you guessed it right, that’s also there in the movie. In an effort to retain the comic duo factor of part one played by Rajpal Yadav and Paresh Rawal, in the second part Rajpal Yadav and his new pair Sanjay Mishra who are such versatile actors, are criminally misused.
No matter what anyone say, the movie became a blockbuster even with a mediocre plot as it came after a bunch of failures in Bollywood. Yet, the lack of original content and creativity plaguing the industry is going to sink that ship if not acted upon effectively and fast.
So, if you must, you can watch Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 on Netflix.
