01-05-2025
The Bhootnii Review: Sanjay Dutt And Mouni Roy Struggle To Lift A Loud, Middling Film
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The Bhootnii Movie Review: Feel free to give this film a miss and if you miss Sanjay Dutt, you better go watch Munna Bhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munna Bhai for the umpteenth time.
The Bhootnii is currently running in theatres.
The Bhootnii Movie Review: This is the age of horror-comedies and may god spare us from this wave! This week's brand-new (that's debatable) horror-comedy is The Bhootnii and it makes you wonder if succumbing to the formula is enough. What about the screenplay? And what about the treatment? Is brand 'horror-comedy' enough to entice a crowd into a theatre? It's a big, fat NO. The Bhootnii – though based on a decent plotline – is bereft of both horror and comedy and is too ambitious for its own good. What's left is a middling screenplay that tries too hard to keep the film afloat.
It revolves around The Virgin Tree. Delhi University alumni must be familiar with it. For those who aren't, every year, the students of Hindu College used to perform the Damdami Mai puja (worship of The Virgin Tree) on campus, hoping to find love. One of the key highlights of the event included praying to a Bollywood actor and actress. This one time, the chosen celebrity was Sunny Leone. But coming back to The Bhootnii – that was previously titled The Virgin Tree – is set in a college called St Vincent College of Art and Culture.
On every Valentine's Day, the students offer garlands, photographs and notes to a tree on the campus with the anticipation that they too will soon have a blossoming love life and a happening sex life. But little do they know that a spirit resides in that tree. Things go awry when a bunch of students die in unusual and inexplicable ways. The protagonist, Shantanu, too faces the wrath of the spirit when he breaks down before the tree and reprimands it for not listening to his prayers as his love interest takes off on a motorbike with another boy.
And when this spirit comes to power, several students start hallucinating and get seizures. As all of this upsets the apple cart, the faculty and the management decide to call for a meeting. Unable to find answers, they reach out to an old student, Krishna Tripathi, who calls himself Baba and is now a 'para-physicist'. It's rather interesting how Baba is introduced in the film. He's seen fighting piśāca-like creatures in what looks like a shoddy VFX-heavy film shot against a green screen. His lackey, in fact, cautions him that this is no Naagin shoot. Interestingly, he uses guns to shoot down spirits. He also wears an energy detector on his wrist.
So, this spirit named Mohabbat – who never found true love and suffered due to a betrayal – falls in love with Shantanu. And his closeness to his female friend, Ananya, makes her jealous. That's when her evil side comes to the core. She starts controlling Ananya. One day, she decides to tell Shantanu the truth about who she really is and when he's unwilling to believe her, she takes the form of a supernatural entity with green eyes and veins. Baba comes to the rescue and tries to send her back to the underworld.
At 2 hours 10 minutes, The Bhootnii appears too long-drawn. A lot of time is wasted through the first half and when it's time for the interval, you'll realise that no real plot progression has happened. The makers resort to oodles of physical comedy, which, in all honesty, is jarring, to say the least. Shantanu has two best friends (played by Nick and Aasif Khan) and while they try to make do with the material available to them, a poorly written script doesn't help them soar. Instead, who soars (literally) are Mohabbat and Shantanu much like those piśāca-like creatures.
We don't encourage drinking but there's an interesting game that you can play while watching The Bhootnii. Every time the words 'mohabbat' and 'rooh' are uttered, you take a sip from your fancy Stanley Cups (let's face it, no one will let you carry glasses inside a theatre). We can assure you that the spirit will eventually let you to enjoy this tale of a spirit. On a different note, the writer packs the screenplay with many 'jokes' – some of which are references to Ranbir Kapoor's Animal and one of which is borrowed from Munna Bhai's 'agle din apne mohalle mein Hema aayi'.
And speaking of Ranbir, there's a flashback sequence in The Bhootnii where we see a young Sanjay Dutt. It will definitely make you think that the makers should have rather considered superimposing Ranbir as a young Sanjay from Sanju. Much like bad jokes, The Bhootnii is filled with aerial shots, which do nothing to elevate the drama. As for St Vincent College of Art and Culture, it's a unique place because students never study there. They spend their time looking at and thinking about The Virgin Tree and whiling their time away at the college café adorned with neon lights.
The saddest part is that the funny dialogues don't evoke any laughter and the ones that aren't meant to be funny make you crack up. It's also packaged with a bunch of forgettable songs that don't render anything to the narrative. As for the performances, Nick in his debut acting outing, decides to fully play to the gallery. His histrionics are difficult to watch. Who makes up for him is Aasif. Even in a loud and noisy horror-comedy, he manages to leave a mark. His comic timing is relatively mellowed and he genuinely evokes a few laughs. This is an actor worth looking out for!
Sunny Singh as Shantanu appears to be someone who isn't completely convinced with the script but still decides to go with it. There are moments when he's extremely loud and at other places, he's disinterested. His chemistry with Palak Tiwari's Ananya fails to strike a chord either. There's a scene when they have an altercation as a prelude to their confessions of love for each other. It's painful to watch. As for Palak, this script is hardly a parameter to her understand her talent. However, she needs to be given a benefit of doubt for being as confused as Sunny and not completely getting a grasp on the tonality of the script.
It's Mouni, however, who, in a way, shoulders the show. Once again, she plays a supernatural entity (no, not Naagin) and though this is home ground for her, she deserves a story and a script that helps her push the envelope. She manages to hold your attention (for good or for bad, but attention is attention) even when you feel your hope slipping away from the film. Her Mohabbat is no Junoon from Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva, but she truly is convincing.
But what's truly sad is that the film doesn't do justice to Sanjay. This is a man with an impeccable comic timing but even he's dealt with a deck of poorly written one-liners. For an actor of his stature, who we rarely get to watch on the big screen, he deserves bigger and better. However, his signature swag is still very much a part of The Bhootnii. His towering presence makes him the perfect fit for Baba, who can go against the natural order and crush any spirit to dust – sometimes with a gun and sometimes with love. We wish there was a little more backstory when it comes to Sanjay's Baba.
What becomes a redemption of sorts is the last sequence where the climax unfolds. It bears the right kind of energy, treatment and texture, and adds a lot of gravitas to both Baba and Mohabbat. All in all, The Bhootnii is a reminder to filmmakers to stop underestimating the audience. For a horror-comedy to lack both is unforgivable. Even the jump scares are made to look diluted, thanks to the juddering noise and tonality of the film. Feel free to give this film a miss and if you miss Sanjay Dutt, you better go watch Munna Bhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munna Bhai for the umpteenth time.
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