Bhool Bhulaiyaa Turns 17: Priyadarshan Refuses To Call It His 'Personal Favourite'. Here's Why | EXCLUSIVE

Two of the prolific Priyadarshan’s films were released on the same date, albeit in different years. "And they were both so different from one another. Yeh Teraa Ghar Yeh Meraa Ghar was a social comedy. Bhool Bhulaiyaa obviously had longer legs. It is still being celebrated while I have moved on," says the director.ALSO READ: In Yeh Teraa Ghar Yeh Meraa Ghar, released in 2001 the effort to piggyride on the success of Hera Pheri shows up in almost every frame. Even the characters are, at best, carryovers from the earlier film. The dialogues are clever. However,lame is the name of the game in Yeh Tera Ghar Yeh Mera Ghar. The effort to be street smart and tenant friendly shows up in all the wrong places. The monotonously mirthful manner in which the movie manoeuvres through the landlord-tenant theme leaves audiences with a heavy feeling of disappointment in a comedy where there punchline goes for a toss.Is this really a follow-up to the sparkling ‘chawl-chala-chal’ comedy in Hera Pheri? After a while the toilet jokes, Mahima’s starched cotton saris, Sunil Shetty’s ubiquious umbrella tucked to the back of his shirt, cop Paresh Rawail’s pathetic unrequited love for the spunky Mahima, and all the other symptoms and symbols of middleclassiness begin to get wearisome and redundant.Says Priyadarshan, “I can’t even remember the film too well. But I do know it was a light take on the housing problem in Mumbai. Not one of my Hindi hits. But it didn’t lose money. As for Bhool Bhulaiyaa we were experimenting with the horror-comedy mix. Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan and my terrific cast got into the merger mood . We had fun shooting Bhool Bhulaiyaa. But that was it. I wouldn’t like to return to Bhool Bhulaiyaa.”ALSO READ: The house of horrors with the ghost of a wronged nautch girl cursing, abusing, singing and dancing in Bengali is a favourite of fans. Priyadarshan's patented parody is projected into a story that seems to endorse blind faith and black magic. Akshay Kumar plays the serio-comic psychologist doing an "Exorcist" on the possessed US-returned Vidya Balan. As usual Priyadarshan spends a lot of time in detailing trivia, which finally adds up to much ado about absolutely nothing. The characters of the village are piled on for about thirty minutes of playing time. Another thirty minutes goes into introducing the wacky inmates of the ancestral house. The freakish fear-funny fest is initially shot on the banks of the Ganga, but suddenly we see deserts and ethnic clothes. But the one person who keeps you watching the film is Vidya Balan. As a woman possessed, she pours so much intense energy into her raging Kathak dance as the courtesan that you forgive Priyadarshan all his trespasses of overloaded hysterology.Looking back Priyadarshan says, “I can’t say Bhool Bhulaiyaa is one of my personal favourites. But it was a big success, and Akshay and I are doing another horror comedy now. But you won’t see any signs of Bhool Bhulaiyaa in it, rest assured.”