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I distinctly remember watching Bhool Bhulaiyaa back in 2007. I had not watched the movie’s trailer. Watching trailers on YouTube was not really a thing back then. I remember thinking it was an out-and-out comedy when I went to the cinema hall and then getting scared out of my wits when the dreaded Manjulika appeared on-screen. Back then, Bhool Bhulaiyaa was a fantastic movie. It was funny and scary at the same time. 

Fifteen years later, we now get to watch a standalone sequel called ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, which is neither funny nor scary. It’s just another Bollywood attempt to capitalize on a successful franchise. Surprisingly, it has done really well at the box office. But like we’ve talked about so many times before in this space, high gross does not necessarily translate to high quality. 

Kartik Aaryan plays Ruhaan Randhawa, a recently orphaned heir who travels wantonly around India as he can afford the lifestyle. On one of his expeditions in Himachal Pradesh, he meets Reet (Kiara Advani), a medical student who plans to go back to her hometown Bhawanigarh, Rajasthan, to get married. 

Befriending each other during the trip, the two take a brief detour, making them miss their bus back home. The said bus plunges down a gorge though, killing everyone abroad. Ruhaan and Reet are saved, but on finding out that her sister wants to marry her would-be groom, Reet decides to let her family believe that she is dead. She then takes Ruhaan to hide for a few days in the family’s old abandoned mansion at Bhawanigarh.

That’s where Manjulika lives! The Manjulika in BB2 is different from the first, with a strong agenda against her twin Anjulika, Reet’s sister-in-law. She has been locked up in a room in the mansion for over 15 years with no one daring to even go near it. Ruhaan and Reet’s clear plan of getting her younger sister hitched gets Manjulika out of her confinement, angrier and fiercer than before. 

Tabu plays the twins Manjulika and Anjulika in this horror-comedy directed by Anees Bazmee. Now we all know Tabu’s track record as a powerful actor, belting out one after another strong performance in Bollywood. She is no less in BB2 as she takes the center stage as the evil Manjulika who wants to destroy everything in her path to vengeance. Even as the homely Anjulika, who is the main target of the wrathful spirit, Tabu is convincing enough. But the problem with BB2 is that the writing, direction and familiarity of Tabu as an actor fail to establish her as a scary ghost.

Vidya Balan, who played Majulika back in 2007, was a relative newcomer in Bollywood. So when she transformed into a ghost, the effect was surprising and horrifying. Unfortunately for Tabu, her almost three-decade-long career in the film industry has given her too much exposure to be taken seriously as an evil spirit in a film like BB2 which focuses more on industry gimmicks than serious writing and production. 

Similarly, Bhool Bhulaiyaa was made when Akshay Kumar’s career as a comedian was peaking. And so was Rajpal Yadav’s. Karthik Aaryan replaces Kumar in the lead but he cannot match the style, energy and charisma of his senior. The newcomer, apparently a heartthrob amongst young women, is yet to find his mojo in Bollywood. 

The sadder part is Rajpal Yadav losing his charm. He revives his role as Chhote Pandit in the film but the difference of 15 years seems to have taken a toll on the actor’s vivacity. Although BB2 can be called a multi-starrer with the number of famous supporting actors it features, I mention Yadav because he was one of the most memorable characters in the first edition. It is only natural for the audience to expect more from him in this one. 

Who should watch it?

Talking about expectations, maybe BB2’s nomenclature just burdened it with expectation. Maybe if it had taken some other name, a lot of people, including this reviewer, would not have expected much and wasted time on it. Still, BB2’s box office collections suggest this is a worth-a-try movie on Netflix. People who like slapstick comedy and light horror could still enjoy it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2KRKxAb2ek 

Rating: 2.5 stars

Genre: Comedy, drama

Actors: Karthik Aaryan, Kiara Advani, Tabu

Director: Anees Bazmee

Run time: 2hrs 25mins

Prayaag Akbar’s debut novel ‘Leila’ was adapted into a Netflix series by Deepa Mehta. Starring Huma Qureshi, Rahul Khanna, and Sanjay Suri, among others, the series has six episodes and ends on a cliffhanger. I believe you should always read the book first and then watch its film or TV adaptation but, invariably, there are times I do the opposite. And I always regret it. Leila, the book is better than Leila, the series. The series is a little dramatized while the story in the book feels raw and real. Akbar writes well. It’s easy to conjure up scenes in your head. 

Essentially a story about a mother looking for her missing daughter, Leila is set in a dystopian world—a world that seems likely in the near future. It’s unsettling because of its plausibility. The world is divided into ‘sectors’, according to religion in order to maintain ‘purity’. Protected by walls and guarded by Repeaters (young men given the authority to enforce random rules to keep separate people according to race, class, and religion), people need permission to enter these sectors. Anyone who doesn’t follow strict rules is harshly punished. 

At the start of the novel, we see Shalini, the novel’s narrator, and her husband Rizwan, gearing up to celebrate their daughter’s birthday. Next thing we know, Shalini is in a ‘purity camp’—a place meant for women who don’t follow the rules. She’s lost her husband (he’s beaten brutally and probably killed) and her daughter (she vanishes along with her nanny, Sapna). From the camp, she’s sent to live in the Towers outside the city. As broken as her spirit might be, she’s determined to search for her daughter and 16 years on, she’s relentless in her pursuit. 

Leila is a great commentary on how class and religion divide us. It’s a reminder of our  bleak future if we continue to let traditional social constructs determine our actions. The book is also a heartfelt portrayal of maternal love, of the lengths a mother will go to care for and protect her child. Shalini, Akbar’s heroine, could be anyone of us. She’s not courageous or noble. She’s as good or bad as her circumstances. One minute you find yourself hating her for being so stubborn and then loving her the next as you see she’s trying and failing and yet not giving up. 

Those who read and love dystopian stories will perhaps get a sense of déjà vu. It’s oddly reminiscent of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. But Leila is dark and disturbing (and thus you are hooked) because it’s easy to imagine a future where things are happening exactly as described in the book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34932175-leila 

Three stars

Fiction

Leila

Prayaag Akbar

Published: 2017

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 

Pages: 263, Paperback 

In his latest movie “Jayeshbhai Jordaar,” actor Ranveer Singh plays the titular Jayesh Patel—a happy-go-lucky man who lives in a village called Pravingadh, Gujarat, with his pregnant wife Mudra (Shalini Pandey) and daughter Siddhi (Jia Vaidhya). His family has been in power in the village for generations. 

When his father Prutvish (Boman Irani) faces a tough competition in the village sarpanch election, he puts Mudra as a front—and she wins. But she neither gets to exercise her power nor to attend any of the public hearings. For all intents and purposes, her father-in-law is still the village head. 

This is just the beginning of the film, giving you a glimpse of what is to come. Pravingadh is a village riddled with superstition and patriarchy. Jayesh’s family is no exception. In fact, his father is a strong proponent of patriarchy; he forbids women from using bathing soaps as, apparently, their fragrance draws unwanted male attention. Jayesh and his mother Jasodha (Ratna Shah Pathak) are bystanders and sometimes unwillingly complicit in Prutvish’s atrocities. Mudra has no say in the house. 

Jayesh’s parents are unhappy with their daughter-in-law as she has not been able to give him a son—an heir to continue the Patel family lineage. His eldest daughter is nine, and since his wife Mudra has had six abortions as all those fetuses tuned out to be female. 

This time, Jayesh’s parents are confident it is a male. But as Mudra gets into the last stage of pregnancy, Jayesh finds out that she has a daughter. Fearing for the life of both mother and the unborn daughter, Jayesh devises an escape from the village. His ordeal while running away with the pregnant Mudra and Siddhi, while his powerful father and his clan are in hot pursuit, makes up for the story of Jayeshbhai Jordaar.

But this is still a side story. Directed by Divyang Thakkar, Jayeshbhai Jordaar is an Indian comedy-drama film that has so many incidents that deserve to become stand-alone stories of their own. The film exposes a part of India (and South Asia by extension) that is still reeling under ancient cultures and malpractices. 

In their patriarchal world, Suyesh is a misfit: a feminist who believes in equal rights. He cannot straight up rebel against his father but he makes every attempt to protect his wife and daughter in secret. He locks his bedroom door and pretends to hit Mudra because his parents want him to but he does not actually lay a finger on her. He steals bathing soap from his mother’s safe because Mudra loves the smell. 

Actor Ranveer Singh, known for his trailblazing fashion and style, shuns all his ornamentation to play an ordinary Gujarati villager in the film. Jayeshbhai is Bollywood’s take on Indian social issues and Singh shows a commitment to the cause through his performance. This is something Akshay Kumar did in the past before he lost his mojo. I just think Ranveer Singh does it better and with more conviction. 

Actors Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah naturally assume their positions like the class act they are. As the villain, Irani gets a stronger role and performs it with natural ease. A new but popular name in South Indian cinema, Shalini Pandey playing Mudra, a daughter-in-law in a strict Gujrati household, does not get many opportunities to shine but this does not stop her from showcasing her skills whenever she is on screen. 

The young Jia Vaidya as Jayesh’s daughter Siddhi is the show-stealer, though. Despite living in a world of voiceless women, Siddhi is smart, sassy and vocal. She is one who gives her father the name of ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaaar’. Vaidya’s portrayal of Siddhi is a treat to watch.  

Who should watch it?

Jayeshbhai Jordaar is a PG drama that can be enjoyed by the whole family. It is not only entertaining but also educational. Still, it is a Bollywood adaptation, so you can expect some over-the-top sequences and improbable situations. There are moments when you feel the filmmakers could have done better. But those are few and far between and definitely not a deal-breaker. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppJtxJ7RWY 

Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Comedy, drama

Actors: Ranveer Singh, Shailini Pandey, Boman Irani

Director: Divyang Thakkar

Run time: 2hrs 1min

If I could only read one book for the rest of my life, it would have, until recently, been ‘A Man Called Ove’ by Fredrik Backman. Now I will replace that with Backman’s latest book ‘Anxious People’. It’s that good. Backman is a fantastic writer who understands human complexities and insecurities like no other author I’ve read. Anxious People made me happy. It made me sad. I laughed. I cried. It was such an immersive read. There are many characters but I can’t pick a favorite. They all have little pieces of my heart. 

A hilarious, outrageous novel about a robber who fails to rob a bank but sparks a hostage drama, the book touches issues of love, marriage and parenthood among many others. It’s very thought-provoking and uplifting. The story begins with a hostage drama. The hostage-taker has many problems in life—he is short on rent, and without a permanent place to stay he risks losing the custody of his daughter. But then he ends up trying to rob a cashless bank. When the cashier calls the police, he runs into a nearby apartment and takes hostage those who have come for the viewing. 

Among the hostages are a lesbian couple, Julia and Ro, who is expecting a baby, an 87-year-old woman Estelle, Zara, a uber-rich bank manager who is in therapy for depression, Anna-Lena and Roger, a long-married couple who buy and renovate properties and sell them for a profit, Lennart, a rabbit (won’t say more because spoiler alert!) and a real estate agent. Then there are the cops: Jim and Jack. They are also father and son. The hostage situation is their first ever ‘big’ case and they have to google to find out how to deal with it. 

Every character has his/her own backstory and so there’s a lot going on. But Backman juggles them with ease. You don’t lose track of the main plotline when the characters take you through their individual lives. You can see yourself or your loved ones in them. You can relate to their flaws. You struggle with the same problems. It’s all very humbling and calls for some introspection. 

Backman has battled anxiety and depression all his life and he explores these complex topics in all his books. In Anxious People, the book that apparently took the longest to write according to the author, these mental health issues are once again taken up with love and compassion. Despite dealing with heavy topics, the novel is refreshing and fun as Backman is witty and that keeps the narrative non-preachy. I’ve already recommended the book to my family and friends and I can’t wait to discuss it with them when they are done.

Five stars 

Fiction

Anxious People

Fredrik Backman

Translated by Neil Smith

Published: 2020

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Pages: 339, Hardcover