Bhool Bhulaiyaa

Bhool Bhulaiyaa (Hindi: भूल भुलैया, English: The Maze) is a 2007 Bollywood psychological thriller comedy horror film directed by Priyadarshan. The film constitutes the official remake of the 1993 Malayalam film, Manichitrathazhu, which was already remade into several Indian films.^[2] The film features Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Ameesha Patel and Shiney Ahuja in pivotal roles with Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav in supporting roles. The music of the film was composed by Pritam and the lyrics were written by Sameer.

The film began shooting on 18 February 2007 for a 41-day schedule at Jaipur, India and was released on 12 October 2007.

Plot

Badri, (Manoj Joshi) heads a Brahmin family whose ancestral palace is believed to be haunted by the ghost of Manjulika, a Bengali classical dancer. One day, Siddharth (Shiney 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 in their ancestral palace. Here, Siddharth is crowned as the king, his right to the throne.

Events take a twist when Avni opens a forbidden locked room that contains the ghost of Manjulika with the help of Nandini (Tareena Patel), Siddharth's cousin. Unnatural events start taking place inside the palace. Avni falls in love with the place and learns 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, Shri Yagyaprakashji Bharti (Vikram Gokhale), but unfortunately the priest has gone to London and is unsure when he might return. When the local priest, Chhote Pandit (Rajpal Yadav), sees the moving shadow of Manjulika heading towards him, he ends up becoming crazy.

Siddharth starts suspecting Radha (Amisha Patel) for all the strange occurrences. He thinks she has gone crazy since he was supposed to marry her, but married Avni instead. He calls his friend/psychiatrist Dr. Aditya Shrivastav (Akshay Kumar) to try to figure out what the problem is with Radha.

Once Aditya reaches the palace, things become comical, as no one likes him and thinks he is a fool, though he is in fact very intelligent. Aditya uses modern analytical techniques to find out the reason behind the ghost problem. He eventually realizes that Radha is not at fault, and that there is someone else behind it all. One night, while patrolling the palace, he encounters Manjulika and dares her to strike. The ghost angrily vows to take her revenge on the auspicious day of Durgashtami.

During the engagement of Nandini and Sharad Pradhan (Vineeth), Avni spills food on Sharad and takes him away to get him cleaned. Aditya notices that Avni is missing so he and Siddharth go to find her. When they do, they see that there is a struggle between Avni and Sharad, and quickly intervene. Siddharth begins to hit Sharad, thinking that he was violating Avni, but Aditya tells him that Avni is actually the real culprit. It is revealed that Avni has Dissociative Identity Disorder, a disease that affects the person's identity, making them think they're someone else. Aditya explains that Avni is the one making all the strange things happen around the palace. To support his argument, Aditya reveals that he visited Avni's hometown to gather information about her childhood and has factual evidence. He then tells the half-convinced Siddtharth to provoke Avni in order to make him realize that something is wrong. When Siddharth provokes her, Avni shows the personality of Manjulika before returning to her usual self, much to the horror and concern of Siddharth, who asks Aditya to save Avni.

During Durgashtami, Aditya and Siddharth see Avni consumed in Manjulika's identity, dressed as her and dancing to the tunes Manjulika had been dancing to with her love, Shashidhar, before the king murdered him. Through this, the tragic love story of the old king Vibhuti Narayan, who loved Manjulika, who in turn loved Shashidhar, is revealed. Avni imagines herself as Manjulika and Sharad as Shashidhar, dancing in the court of the king. This triggers Avni's disorder; she completely assumes the identity of Manjulika and tries to kill her own husband Siddharth; she sees him as Vibhuti Narayan, the king who had killed Manjulika's lover and locked her up in the room where she committed suicide.

To cure Avni, Aditya triggers Manjulika's personality and makes her promise to leave Avni if she gets the opportunity to kill the king and take her revenge. The priest Shri Yagyaprakashji Bharti (who happens to be Aditya's guider) arrives to visit Siddharth. With his help, during the ritual of Durgashtami, Aditya lays out an intricate plan to trick Manjulika into thinking she is killing the king when she is actually slaying a dummy of Siddharth. After the "murder", Manjulika, now content, leaves Avni forever. Aditya hypnotizes the unconscious Avni and says that she will continue her life as the same happy and peaceful person she once was. Everything ends well and Aditya tells Radha, whom he has taken a liking to, that he will send his parents over if she is interested in marrying him, to which a smiling and happy Radha gives her silent consent.

Cast

Production

Casting

Originally Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif were the first female choices for this film but they turned down the offer and were replaced by Vidya Balan and Ameesha Patel.^[3] Vidya Balan had to take Kathak lessons for this film. Incidentally, Vineeth played the same role in the Rajnikanth-starrer Chandramukhi (2005), which was the Tamil remake of Manichithrathazhu.

Controversy

The original story of the film was written by Madhu Muttam. Though he claimed this film as a violation of copyright, the High Court of Kerala allowed the violation of copyright, in light of the production cost. The film came under a cloud of controversy after a Buddhist organisation objected to the title song in the movie as disrespectful to venerated icons.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Pritam with lyrics provided by Sameer and Sayeed Quadri. The title track "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" became a chartbuster.

Character map of Manichithrathazhu and its remakes

Box office

The film became a super hit and was also a hit overseas; it opened to a 95% response full houses overseas, which was the second best opening of the year after Partner. It was well-received by cinema-goers for its mild comedy and psychological horror and suspense.^[4]

References

External links

• Official Website of Bhool Bhulaiyaa at Eros
• Bhool Bhulaiyaa at the Internet Movie Database