The grandfather of the London-based siblings Arjun (Akshay Kumar) and Meera (Mithila Palkar) has died. Meera stands to gain a mansion in India that neither she nor Arjun knew about. Good timing – Meera is looking for a venue for her upcoming nuptials.

Arjun lands up at the ancestral house with wedding planner Jagdish (Paresh Rawal) in tow. The rough-mannered Jagdish and his nephew Balli (Rajpal Yadav) aren’t the kind of people a non-resident Indian like Arjun might hire, but it’s too early to wonder about obvious loopholes in a movie full of them.

The estate’s manager Shambhu (Asrani) blathers on about an ancient curse. The bat-like demon Vadhasur has been snatching away newly married women to his lair in the forest. Soon enough, bat-shaped shadows are seen on the walls, but only at night. Rather than flooding the place with lights – the story takes place eons after the discovery of electricity – Arjun elects to fight mystery with hysteria.

Priyadarshan’s Bhooth Bangla is out on cinemas. The Hindi movie, based on a story by Aakash Kaushik and a screenplay by Priyadarshan, Rohan Shankar and Abilash Nair, is haunted by previous, and better, scare-laced comedies about accursed cavernous houses.

The one room to which entry is barred by a...

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