MOVIE DETAILS

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Shiney Ahuja, Amisha Patel, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Asrani, Manoj Joshi
Director: Priyadarshan
Producer: Bhushan Kumar & Krishan Kumar (T-Series)
Music: Pritam
Lyrics: Sameer

THE FILM

Bhool Bhulaiyaa is one of the five straight hits that Akshay Kumar has given in recent times. It came after Bhagam Bhag, Namastey London and Heyy Babyy and made way for Welcome which is now his all time biggest blockbuster ever. Coming back to Bhagam Bhag, it also showed Priyadarshan in a new light as he combined thrills, drama, comedy and suspense in a single setting and still came trumps.

Expectedly there were detractors for Bhool Bhulaiyaa as well but they were all trampled over once the film took a very good opening. Releasing alongside Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, this Akshay Kumar film massacred the Yash Raj production and turned out to be superhit at the box office. Though there were a few voices, which complained against Akshay Kumar's late entry in the film (he comes a few minutes before the interval), it actually worked in the favor of the film since it added on to the anticipation quotient.

Till his arrival, there were numerous intentional (Asrani, Rajpal Yadav) and unintentional (Shiney Ahuja) comic elements in place which kept the momentum going. However, the film's graph changed from comedy to suspense and thrills as audience started catching hold of Vidya Balan's split character. Though the execution of the climax sequence faded in comparison to Manichitrathazhu, original source of inspiration of the film, or Chandramukhi, in the bigger scheme of things, Bhool Bhulaiyaa worked.

PACKAGING

Bhool Bhulaiyaa easily stands out amongst one of the Top-5 packaged DVDs from year 2007. Opulent in appeal, the DVD has a stylish case with an additional exterior that adds on to the haunting/mysterious appeal of the film. Bonus comes in the form of a special booklet, which would please elders and kids alike. Reason being that the booklet, going with the genre and theme of the film, has Bhool Bhulaiyaa related puzzles, unscrambling of words, spot the differences, hidden words etc. to add on to consumer's engagement with the product.

DURATION

The film comes in a two DVD pack. While the film's duration is 157 minutes, special features in the second DVD span 90 minutes.

SPECIAL FEATURES

- Interview of Bhushan Kumar
- Making of the film
- Deleted song - 'Sakhiya'
- 3 Promotional Videos (Remixes of 'Hare Raam', 'Sajda' and 'Labon Ko Labon Se')
- MTV Big Picture (Cyrus' interview of Shiney Ahuja and Vidya Balan)
- Audience reaction (which by the way is spelt as 'audieance reaction' in the DVD menu!)
- Interviews on Music India

Absolute waste of 90 precious minutes - this is how one reacts after going through the ordeal of this 'Special Features' DVD. That's because in the end, it comes across as an elaborate exercise which was meant only for one purpose - Promote 'Hare Krishna Hare Raam' as much as you can, even if it is not just on your face but all over it! Believe it or not, but the song may have found a mention, either verbally or visually, at least 100 times (ok, I am exaggerating, I think it was around 97 times!).

Whether it is an 'Interview with Bhushan Kumar', 'Making of the film', '3 Promotional Videos', 'MTV Big Picture', 'Audience reaction' or 'Interviews on Music India' - the sole intent comes across as letting the world know that 'Hare Krishna Hare Ram' is a chartbuster track. Agreed, but then precious DVD disk space could have been utilized to talk about 'actual' making of the film as well! Instead, what one gets to see are interviews with cast and crew, mainly Bhushan Kumar, Vidya Balan, Pritam, Shiney Ahuja and Sameer (in that order). Each of them, when through with their love for 'Hare Krishna', does talk about the film but it is all again set as basic interviews with not many tales about behind the scenes happenings or the challenges faced during filming etc.

To add insult to the injury, Akshay Kumar is hardly there as he spends a mere 45 seconds odd in entirety to talk about the film and the music. This is not all as Amisha Patel, Akshay's love interest in the film, doesn't find herself contributing at all with her appearance being restricted to 'Sakhiya', the song which was deleted from the film and now finds a place in the DVD.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

- 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen format, Presented in 2:35:1 aspect ratio
- Subtitles In English and Bengali
- 5.1 Dolby Digital & Stereo
- Digitally Mastered from the Original Film.

CONCLUSION

Though one may take the claims of the makers around Bhool Bhulaiyaa being Bollywood's first ever psychological thriller with a pinch of salt, the fact cannot be denied that the film made for an engaging watch. Crisp direction, able performances (by both Vidya Balan and Akshay Kumar), excellent cinematography, wonderful sound design and a haunting background score made sure that throughout those 157 minutes, a viewer is glued to the screen. And if reasons like these are not good enough, there is always a 'Hare Krishna Hare Ram' (by Pritam) to bank upon!

Rating: ***1/2