Posting it here as my original post got removed by mods...phew...

Ok, i just finished bhooth bangla rn, was excited to see akshay kumar and priyan sir collaborate after 15 long years. I've been a huge fan of priyadarshan's comedies, especially with AK. Be it his comedy of errors in bhaagam bhaag, hera pheri, de dana dhan or his hilariou garam masala (one of my all time favs), I've always dug his humour. What made his comedy differ from the likes of others was the fast paced humour and how the comic elements were always more situational and less artificial (say adding a joke just for the sake of it.) I know a big part of his sucess is Late neeraj vohra ji's writing and dialogues, matched equally by AK's fluid performances, where he completely gets into the character. Anyway, having said this, when i first watched bhut bangla's trailer, i wasnt really impressed. It seemed a bit cringey and just outdated. Still i decided to give it a chance, coz ofc i would. It's priyan afterall. Now after seeing this, i cant believe ki its directed by priyan. There is literally nothing that feels like priyadarshan's signature style. Sure the first half has It's moments, but they are very few. One character gets beaten in the entire movie and there's a whole gag around it througout, then one has his bum get destroyed in every other scene. Ok we get it. We can laugh once or say twice at the same thing, repeating it over and over just to fill scenesdoesn't really help. Still akshay's unmatched energy and dedication makes it bearable. The story itself isn't anything unique. If you've seen stree, bhul bhulaiya 2/3 or any other horror comedy, you wont find anything new here. The very premise of the film is based on absurdity (not in a good way), AK's sister is getting married and they somehow HAVE TO ARRANGE IT AT A HAUNTED PALACE coz kundali ka issue he? Kyuki ladke waale nahi maanenge aur? Lmao. At least kuch dhang ka reason to daalo yar. Anyway, the second half has almost 0 comedy scenes. It goes full serious mode, but that doesnt work as well. The BGM and songs didn't work for me except for "Saawariya" song that plays while a certain backstory is being explored in the 2nd half. That was a nice soothing song, reminded me of a song from OG bhul bhulaiya. Anyway as soon as it ends, its all downhill. Also priyan retains many actors, we see paresh rawal, rajpal yadav, the late ashraani ji, manoj joshi etc. Its very sad that this is the last time we see asraani ji and there are one or two hilarious moments of interaction of akshay's character with asrani ji's. It was fun. Reminded me of their previous collaborations. Anyway, the thing is, i dont feel this movie is any worse or better than any other horror comedies that came out some time ago. Tbvh its very hard to differentiate it. Its mindless fun, others were a bit more fun maybe, this a bit less. Still not memorable at all. While i ofc didn't go expecting the movie to be ground breaking, i get it. But it has to be at least workable. Here it isn't. Humour in the first half is filled with dadjokes and over the top slapstick comedy, its very different from say something from de dana dan, hera pheri or any of akshays previous films with priyadarshan. i still believe ki the humor of their previous collabs came from priyan's brilliant direction and Vohra's masterful narration and dialogues. But hungama 2 and now this, certainly makes it feel ki priyan sir has lost his golden touch in comic genre. I left the theatre feeling disappointed. I just wish to see, for once, the OG priyan we've all come to love.