Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2

<p>Across a mansion in Bhawanigarh, , in 2004, powerful sorcerers and priests perform sacred rituals, and supernatural things start happening across the palace by a malevolent spirit named Manjulika, who is hell-bent on attacking the family’s daughter-in-law, Anjulika. The sorcerer intervenes and forces the spirit inside a chamber, and a powerful trishul and sacred amulets are placed on the door to seal away the spirit inside the room. After this, the family deserts the mansion for safety. 18 years later, in , Ruhaan Randhawa meets Reet Thakur, who is on a trip to Bhawanigarh via to marry her fiancé Sagar reluctantly. They board a bus to Chandigarh but cut short their journey to attend a music carnival and later discover that the bus on which they were supposed to travel met with an accident, killing everyone on board. Subsequently, the Thakurs, who are owners of the mansion that was deserted 18 years ago, assumed her to be dead. Reet tries contacting her family, but over the phone she overhears a conversation between her younger sister Trisha and Sagar, realizing an affair is brewing between them. Seeking to earn them the gift of marriage so she could avoid falling into it, Reet plays along with her family’s presumption about her demise and travels to Bhawanigarh with a hesitant Ruhaan. Reet drags Ruhaan in though he feels that the mansion is spooky. Together they hide in the deserted ancestral mansion, but Chote Pandit, a priest, spots the doors of the mansion opened and informs the Thakurs, who along with the villagers enter the mansion and spot Ruhaan, who covers up the situation by lying that Reet’s spirit led him there and her final wish is to see her family living in the ancestral mansion, and that too with Trisha being married. Under Ruhaan’s influence, the Thakurs fix Trisha’s wedding with Sagar. Due to his presumed ability to communicate with spirits, Ruhaan becomes popular as , and he and Reet become friends. When Ruhaan is led to the room where the spirit was trapped, Anjulika, Reet’s sister-in-law, warns him to stay away from the room and reveals that the spirit is actually Anjulika’s twin sister, Manjulika. The sisters had migrated to the mansion when their father, Debanshu, was asked to manage accounts for the Thakurs. Debanshu’s biased affection for Anjulika’s talents instilled jealousy in Manjulika, which turned into hatred. Both sisters fell in love with Kunwar Thakur, Reet’s elder brother. However, Kunwar reciprocated Anjulika’s feelings, leaving Manjulika fuming and deceived. Mannjulika, who sought solace in learning , decided to use the magic as a weapon against Anjulika. On the night of Kunwar and Anjulika’s wedding, Manjulika brutally stabbed Debanshu for finding out the truth and set out to murder Anjulika, but Anjulika saved herself and stabbed Manjulika in self-defense, killing her. Despite being dead, Manjulika did not leave the family alone, as her spirit continued to harm them and paralyzed Kunwar by pushing him off the balcony. The priests captured Manjulika and locked her in the room on the third floor. After the flashback, Reet’s father reveals to Ruhaan that Manjulika’s curse had killed eight members of their family. One night, Chote Pandit finds Ruhaan and Reet roaming around the mansion and discovers the truth. With the help of his older brother Bade Pandit and his wife (whose business is being affected due to Ruhaan’s popularity), Chote Pandit spearheads a search in the mansion. Knowing that no one would enter Manjulika’s room, Reet resolves to hide there, and Chote Pandit’s accusations are proved false to the family. Freed, Manjulika attacks Anjulika, who discovers the truth about Reet being alive and joins hands with Ruhaan and Reet to ward off the spirit. They take help from the same priest who captured Manjulika’s spirit, but he tells them that he requires three days. Manjulika’s spirit possesses the priest and makes him kill his disciples before being killed himself. Ruhaan encounters the spirit and falls off a terrace out of fear. Ruhaan returns to the palace, conversing in , and claims himself to be Manjulika, revealing that he is possessed. The Thakurs spot Reet and learn that she is alive. Ruhaan attacks Anjulika, who uses Reet as a human shield, by threatening to slit her throat if Ruhaan attacks her and addresses him as “Anjulika”, which confuses the family. Ruhaan reveals that he has been putting up an act of being possessed by the spirit and that the woman who died in 2004 was actually Anjulika, while the one who is living with them is the real Manjulika. Back in 2004, after killing Debanshu with the help of the priest, revealed to be Manjulika’s accomplice, Manjulika influenced Anjulika using black magic and stole her identity. Disguised as Manjulika under the influence of black magic, Anjulika attacked Manjulika, who stabbed her to death under the pretext of self-defense. When Kunwar discovered the truth, Manjulika pushed him off the balcony, paralyzing him and thus preventing him from telling anyone. She also killed eight members of the family for learning the truth. Now in the present day, Anjulika’s spirit attacks Manjulika and imprisons her in the same room in which she got locked in 2004. Anjulika’s spirit has a moment with her family and asks Reet’s father to forgive her since it revealed the truth about Anjulika and Manjulika. She thanks Ruhaan and asks the family to leave, as she has unfinished business with Manjulika. Anjulika enters the room and tortures the real Manjulika to death. The Thakur family leaves, and the mansion becomes abandoned once again. A sequel to (2007) was officially announced on 19 August 2019. , chairman of , had long considered creating a franchise based on the 2007 film. Aakash Kaushik and Farhad Samji had two separate scripts prepared for their independent films. Samji felt that elements of their two scripts could work together for a new film, and they pitched the idea to producer Murad Khetani. Khetani felt the idea had promise and could work as a sequel to . Eventually, he approached Kumar, who came on board, collaborating with Khetani for the second time since , which also starred . was approached to reprise her role as Manjulika for the film but declined, expressing concern that a less successful performance could tarnish the legacy and impact of her portrayal in the . The character was subsequently recast with , of whom Balan spoke fondly. Balan eventually returned for the as Manjullika. began filming on 9 October 2019 and on 25 February 2022. Aaryan lost his voice while filming the climax sequence of the film. It was filmed in a real mansion. Filming was occurring in , before the pandemic disrupted the schedule. It was shot in and . was released on 20 May 2022. The film was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on 31 July 2020, but was delayed due to the . The digital streaming rights of the film were acquired by . The film was digitally streamed on from 19 June 2022. The satellite rights were acquired by , where it premiered on 16 October 2022. On 30 October 2022, a simulcast release of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 occurred on all Sony Network Channels like Sony Max, , and Sony Pal. The music of the film was composed by , while appeared as the guest composer, recreating the title track along with Pritam. The lyrics were written by , , , Mandy Gill, and Saaveri Verma. The song “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 Title Track” was recreated from the title track for the 2007 film which was sung by and written by Sameer. This is the second time the song is being recreated after the 2017 film , which was titled “Hare Krishna Hare Ram”, sung by , , and Ritika, and composed by Gourov-Roshin. The song “Ami Je Tomar/Mere Dholna Sun” from the prequel was also retained in the film. , who sung “Mere Dholna” in the 2007 prequel, reprised her vocals and is featured in three different versions of the song in the film. Due to fan demand, a version of “Ami Je Tomar” featuring the vocals of Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal was also released as a duet with the title “Ami Je Tomar X ” on June 28, 2022, taking from each video clip of the song. All music is composed by except where mentioned. also released the “Cine Audio” of on 24 June 2022. earned (US$1.7 million) at the domestic box office on its opening day. On the second day, the film collected (US$2.2 million). On the third day, the film collected (US$2.8 million) taking total domestic weekend collection to (US$6.6 million). As of 8 July 2022 , the film grossed (US$26 million) in India and (US$5.4 million) overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of (US$32 million), to become the . received positive reviews from critics. On the website , 63% of 8 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. A critic for gave the film four and a half stars out of five and wrote, ” is a complete entertainer and works due to the splendid combo of horror and comedy.” Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of rated it three and a half stars out of five and wrote, ” is an agglomeration of grief and the grieving.” Rohit Vats of gave it three and a half stars out of five and wrote, ” is an out and out entertainer and next in the line of typical Bollywood ‘masala’ films.” Avinash Lohana of rated the film three stars out of five and wrote, “Kartik, Kiara and Tabu live up to their parts. The film has a mass appeal and the potential to bring the audience back into the theatres.” Tushar Joshi of similarly gave the film three stars out of five and wrote, ” has all the masala and makings to satiate the taste buds. It’s funny in places, tries to be scary most of the time, but like its title, its efforts get somewhere lost in a maze.” Bharathi Pradhan of also gave it the same rating and wrote, “Tabu proves once again that she’s a rare blend of versatility in performance with an arresting face. It’s not the kind of film where you stop to look for logic.” Rohit Bhatnagar of rated the film three stars out of five and wrote, “Horror-comedy is a tricky genre, but Anees Bazmee dabbles with funny one-liners and jump scares together quite well.” Devesh Sharma of , also with three stars out of five, wrote, “Watch the film for Tabu’s and Kartik’s performances and for its comic elements.” Nandini Ramnath of also gave the film three stars out of five and wrote, ” moves along on its hero’s insouciance, Tabu’s screen presence, and patches of entertaining comedy.” In a mixed review, of rated the film two and a half stars out of five and found that the film did not take itself seriously to its strength, writing, ” is a silly scary movie that knows it is a silly scary movie.” Shalini Langer of rated the film two stars out of five and felt the humour could have been more sensitive: “There are repeated jokes at the expense of an overweight child and a hard-of-hearing pandit.” With one and a half stars out of five, Tatsam Mukherjee of lamented for the sequel having no narrative relation with the previous film, writing, “While the 2007 original used the vessel of a horror comedy to tell a rather important story about mental illness, the sequel regresses into actual (ghost-spirits).” A third installment in the franchise, titled , was officially announced by with a teaser on March 1, 2023. Directed by , the film stars , who reprises his role as Rooh Baba, alongside , returning as Manjulika from the , along with and . was released on November 1, 2024, coinciding with the festival.</p>