Was it a "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" of a movie?

One of the primary reasons for a blog is to indulge in my passion for movie critiques. Let's start off with "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" which I watched till late last night (bad mistake; I was spooked!).

This is the spoiler on Wikipedia for those of you who have not read it yet. Full kudos to them for summarizing the movie.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa is a psychological thriller suspense/horror black comedy movie with moderate Bollywood song and dance. The Hindi language release is the offical remake of the critically acclaimed 1993 Malayalam psycho-thriller, Manichitrathazhu (translation - The Ornate Lock). The film revolves around a small village/town where the people are very superstitious. Badri (Manoj Joshi) heads a Brahmin family whose ancestral palace is believed to be haunted by a ghost of Manjulika. One day, Siddharth (Shiny Ahuja) and Avni(Vidya Balan), the son and daughter-in-law of Badri's elder brother return to their native village from America and decide to stay for a month in their ancestral palace. Here, Siddharth is crowned as the king, his right to the throne.Events take a twist when Avni opens a locked forbidden room with the help of Nandini. But, Unnatural events start taking place inside the palace. Avni ends up falling in love with the place and begins to learn about Manjulika and her tragic story. Badri and Batuk Shankar (Paresh Rawal) try to ward off the evil eye with the help of a priest, but unfortunately the priest has gone to London and is unsure when he might be back. Siddharth starts to suspect Radha (Amisha Patel) for all the weird things going around. He thinks that she has gone crazy, since he was suposed to marry her, but instead ended up marrying Avni. So, he calls his friend/psychologist Aditya Shrivastav (Akshay Kumar) to try to figure out what the problem is with Radha.Once Aditya reaches the haveli things start to become comical as no one in the haveli likes him, as everyone thinks he is an idiot, due to the way he dresses and acts. We later find out that Radha is actually Badri's adopted daughter and he took care of her as if she were his own. Aditya then starts to use modern analytical techniques to find out the reason behind the so called ghost problem. He eventually realizes that Radha is not at fault, and that there was someone else behind it all. During the engagement of Nandini, Avni ends up spilling food onto Sharad Pradhan (Vineeth), and takes him away to get him cleaned. Aditya than notices that Avni is missing and so he asks Siddharth to help him find her. When they do, they see that there is a struggle between Avni and Sharad, and they eventually end up breaking the struggle and Siddharth begins to hit Sharad thinking that he was going to violate (Rape) Avni. But, Aditya tells him that she is actually the culprit and that she has Dissociative identity disorder, a disease that affects the persons identity. To make sure that things work out the way they are supposed to he must bring out Manjulika's identity. They then see her (Manjulika) dancing to the music she was dancing with her love before the king killed him. We then end up learning the sad love story of the king of old, who loved a dancer, Manjulika, who, in turn, loved someone else. This triggered Avni's disorder; she assumes the identity of Manjulika and tries to kill her own husband Siddharth, as she sees in him the old king who killed Manjulika's lover.In order to cure Avni of her illness, Aditya triggers Manjulika's personality and makes her promise to leave, if Manjulika gets the opportunity to kill the king and have her revenge. During the ritual, Manjulika is tricked and slays a dummy of Siddharth thinking she was killing the king. After the killing, Manjulika's personality leaves Avni for good. Aditya hypnotizes the unconscious Avni and tells her that everything is fine and that she will continue her life as a sane, happy and healthy person. Everything ends well and Aditya asks Radha to marry him.

My comments:

After conducting some research on "Dissociative identity disorder", I found that patients who suffer from this will undergo memory loss, or "losing time" as Vidya Balan did when she switched over to Manjulika's personality, but it is virtually impossible for her to speak a language (Bengali) or perform a classical dance which takes many vigorous years of practice (baratanatiam) under this disorder. It is not humanly possible! There was also a scene in which she was forbidden to go out to buy some jewelry for Nandini and she exploded, lifting the bed off its feet with one hand!

Althought the writers did a good job with explaining Vidya's childhood trauma as a trigger for this behaviour, there were some confusing bits as to why hindu exorcism was used to "cure" Vidya off Manjulika. Towards the end of the movie, it seemed as if the hindu priest was talking to Manjulika as if she was a demon within Vidya's body; requesting her to leave once she slayed the King. Reflecting deeper on the last sentence, technically, Manjulika will never leave because she swore curses upon all the Kings who inhabited that palace. Shiney was only the third (or fourth?) down the line, so any son by Vidya and Shiney would technically be subject to the same curse, wouldn't he?Another point to contest - why would Vidya's childhood trauma be evoked in an environment which was so different from the one she grew up in? She was well-loved and accepted by her in-laws - so why go through the disorder then?

In short, I guess the writers should have skipped the "Dissociative identity disorder" for the 80% of the janta who would not understand it and stuck to the fact that Vidya was possessed by Manjulika. Easy come, easy go.

I've got to also mention that the day of a single hero, single villian are gone. Akshay Kumar carried the entertainment value of this movie on his hunky shoulders from the moment he arrived on set. I think this movie did really well because of this star factor.

Vidya Balan, a great actor from movies such as Parineeta, MBBS2 and Heyy Baby; I've got to say I was plesantly surprised at her caliber of performance. I'd never have thought in a million years that watching her perform would make the hairs on my arm stand. I was actually freaked out when she performed full on as Manjulika. She was absolutely brilliant and convincing. Rumours have it that Aishwariya Rai was supposed to play the part of 'Avni'; but I'm glad a newcomer like Vidya got the chance. Actors often have to take less than savory or unconventional roles to prove to their audience and producers that they should not be type-cast in one genre. Shah Rukh Khan did the same in Anjaam. I am looking forward to future Vidya Balan movies for sure!

Shiney Ahuja - I am a big fan since the days of Gangster, Woh Lamhe and even Life in a Metro. But something was off or different in this movie. It seemed that although he fit well in the 'Raja' role, he didn't go to the lengths of Vidya and Akshay to "own" the role and make it his. It was very superficial, by the book, and downright boring which is such a waste for talent like his. Chin up Shiney, orselse you'll end up like one of the hot bolllywood poster boys like Arjun Rampal or Dino Moreo, on the poster!

All in all, I give this move 8 stars out of 10 - a must watch!