The Bhootnii: A Wobbly Ride through Horror and Hilarity

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🎬 The Bhootnii (2025)

Genre: Horror-Comedy

Directed by: Sidhaant Sachdev

Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Mouni Roy, Sunny Singh, Palak Tiwari

Runtime: Approx. 125 minutes

Language: Hindi

Platform: Theatrical Release

Release Date: May 1, 2025

Bollywood has long had a complicated relationship with the horror-comedy genre. For every Stree or Bhool Bhulaiyaa, there’s a cluster of half-baked attempts that mistake slapstick for satire and cheap jump scares for suspense. The Bhootnii, directed by Sidhaant Sachdev, lands somewhere in the middle. It has moments of charm and promise, especially in its first half, but eventually falters under its tonal confusion and over-reliance on gimmickry.

🧵 Plot: A Spirit with an Agenda and a Village in Denial

Set in the fictional village of Bhairavpur in Madhya Pradesh, The Bhootnii opens with an eerie local legend — a cursed banyan tree on the edge of the village is said to house the restless spirit of a wronged woman. Over the years, tales have emerged of people disappearing, strange lights, and whispered voices at night.

Enter Chandan (Sunny Singh), a low-level real estate fixer from Indore who arrives in Bhairavpur to negotiate a controversial land deal with the panchayat, which includes cutting down the cursed tree. Local belief clashes with corporate greed — until strange incidents begin to occur again, culminating in the return of the titular ghost: Bhootnii (played by Mouni Roy).

But here’s the twist — this ghost doesn’t just scare. She’s witty, sarcastic, and seems to have her own righteous motives. As secrets about the village’s past unravel, Chandan is forced to team up with a reluctant exorcist (Sanjay Dutt), a TikTok-obsessed teen (Palak Tiwari), and the Bhootnii herself to uncover the truth behind the haunting and the real villain behind the land deal.

🎭 Performances: Half-Hearted and Haunting in Unequal Measure

🔹 Sanjay Dutt as Baba Shambhunath

Sanjay Dutt brings a certain weary gravitas to the role of the reluctant ghostbuster. His character is a mix of dry wit, tragic backstory, and old-world machismo. Dutt plays it straight in a film that often spirals into buffoonery around him — and that, surprisingly, works. He’s the emotional anchor in a script that rarely allows for sincerity. A monologue he delivers about guilt and redemption — involving a past case where an exorcism went wrong — is a rare moment of thematic depth in the film.

🔹 Mouni Roy as The Bhootnii

Roy is clearly having fun. She glides, whispers, hisses, and occasionally bursts into over-the-top villainess laughter. She gets the best costume design — flowing ghagras with smoky accents — and even a semi-item number in a dream sequence titled "Ghoonghat Mein Ghoor Gayi." But her character is inconsistently written. At times she's a protector of justice, at others a vengeful banshee with a taste for mischief. Roy tries to stitch it all together, but the patchiness shows.

🔹 Sunny Singh as Chandan

Singh plays the ‘idiot everyman’ role — skeptical of ghosts, foolishly brave, and always a few steps behind the plot. His comic timing is earnest but limited by writing that often turns him into a caricature. In a particularly groan-worthy scene, he tries to "negotiate" with the ghost using LinkedIn lingo. It's amusing at first, then painful.

🔹 Palak Tiwari as Chinki

A Gen Z TikTokker roped into ghostbusting because she wants viral content — this had potential, and Tiwari brings energy to the role. Her scenes with Dutt create an oddball chemistry reminiscent of the student-teacher pairings in ’90s comedies. But she’s underserved by a screenplay that forgets she exists in the second half.

🧠 Writing & Screenplay: Concept Over Commitment

Sidhaant Sachdev, who also co-writes, clearly wants to deliver a postmodern horror-comedy with layers: social satire, supernatural elements, and comedy rooted in rural kitsch. The setup is compelling — haunted heritage clashing with corporate greed. But the screenplay can’t decide what it wants to be: a ghost story with emotional weight or a slapstick circus.

The first half is genuinely fun. It balances folk horror tropes with comic absurdity — a cow that senses ghosts, villagers performing fake rituals for tourist money, and a Panchayat debate interrupted by a possessed parrot. But the second half collapses under too many subplots: land mafia conspiracies, a romantic track, a flashback to 1947 partition-era trauma, and a final act that bizarrely shifts to an action sequence involving ghostly possession of bulldozers.

Dialogue is peppered with one-liners, some clever (“Bhoot bhi vote maangta hai, toh tu kaun hai?”), others lazy (“Kya tum Bhootni ho ya Bhojpuri item girl?”).

🎥 Visuals & Effects: Atmosphere Over Authenticity

Cinematographer Shahnawaz Zali does a commendable job building atmosphere, especially in night sequences. The banyan tree set is beautifully gothic — complete with hanging diyas, swirling mist, and unnaturally still crows. Daytime scenes contrast this with earthy rural colors, emphasizing the cultural clash.

However, the visual effects are inconsistent. The Bhootnii’s levitations look cool; her vanishing and reappearing? Not so much. A few ghost attacks (like one involving a possessed borewell pump) are laughably bad, clearly limited by budget or ambition.

What does work visually is the comic-horror juxtaposition — a possessed sari shop, a haunted government office, even a ghostly WhatsApp group (yes, really). But the overuse of green-tinted filters in the climax dilutes the impact.

🎶 Music & Sound Design: Hauntingly Unmemorable

Sachin-Jigar handle the soundtrack, and while the score serves its purpose, it lacks memorability. The standout track is “Shaam Bhi Bhootni Hai” — a ghazal-inspired number that plays over Mouni Roy’s flashback. Other songs — like the aforementioned “Ghoonghat Mein Ghoor Gayi” — feel forced and disrupt the film’s pacing.

The sound design uses expected horror tropes — creaking doors, whispering winds, reverse playback chants — but overuses them. In quieter moments, there's an opportunity to really use silence to heighten dread, but the film rarely trusts its own atmosphere.

🧩 Themes: Justice, Feminism, and Farce

Beneath the jokes and jumpscares, The Bhootnii tries to tackle important ideas:

* Patriarchal Violence: The Bhootnii is revealed to be a victim of honor-based violence whose story was buried by the village elders. The film attempts to frame her revenge as righteous justice.

* Modernity vs Folklore: Chandan’s corporate ambitions and Chinki’s digital obsessions are shown as blind to local histories and trauma.

* Caste & Land: A brief but bold subplot hints at caste-based land seizures, adding political texture.

Yet these themes are inconsistently explored. The film often undercuts its own message with jokes — like turning a scene of domestic abuse into a ghostly slapstick sequence. It wants to say something serious, but doesn't know how to balance tone.

⚖️ Where It Falters: A Genre That Haunts Itself

The horror-comedy genre is notoriously tricky. The Bhootnii clearly wants to be in the league of Stree, Roohi, or even Go Goa Gone, but lacks the discipline of tone those films managed. Here’s where it stumbles:

* Tone Confusion: Is it a ghost story with a feminist message? Or a spoof of exorcism tropes? Or a rural social satire? It tries to be all — and ends up being not enough of anything.

* Character Arcs Flatten: Chandan remains clueless, the Bhootnii's motivations feel muddled, and Baba Shambhunath gets a redemption arc that comes out of nowhere.

* Overstuffed Climax: The final 20 minutes attempt a high-stakes horror spectacle with poor CGI, exorcism chants, ghostly explosions, and a villain speech that feels like it's from another movie.

✅ What Works: Charm, Context, and Cast

Despite the missteps, The Bhootnii isn't without merit:

* Strong First Half: Genuinely funny, eerie, and inventive.

* Sanjay Dutt’s Gravitas: His performance elevates the narrative.

* Atmospheric World-Building: Bhairavpur feels real, lived-in, and intriguing.

* Satirical Ideas: When it dares to skewer political corruption or spiritual hypocrisy, it lands punches.

🎯 Verdict: 2.5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐½

The Bhootnii has its heart (and haunt) in the right place, but its ambition outpaces its execution. It’s a film that wants to scare you, amuse you, and move you — sometimes all in the same scene. While there are glimmers of originality and a few memorable performances, the film is ultimately haunted by tonal indecision and narrative excess.