Once in a while, you are in the mood for just some plain old kidology. The Bhootnii is so outrageously absurd and so inured to idiocy, you just can’t help plunging into a giggling fit.

Writer-director Sidhaant Sachdev doesn’t take himself seriously.  His wacked-out sense of humour leaves a trail of foolish ghoulish pranks and antics, all absurd, none the least vulgar. The project wears a bright, bouncy, bubbly, inviting look. In fact, andh-vishwas doesn’t feel blindsided by this. And when push comes to shove, there is little chill and plenty of chuckles in the eerie air.

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The concept of a spooked-out tree is age-old.  The film weaves a screwball yarn around a bevvy of party-mooded actors who swing into the groove with a sense of unbridled enjoyment.  While Sunny Singh is passably good as a love-smitten collegian with two women panting after him (one of them a ghost), it is his two sidekicks, played by YouTubers Aasif Khan and Nukunj Lotia, who get the mood of sab-chalta-hai-jab-suraj-dhalta-hai right.

Khan, with his deliberately solemn Urdu, is a rooftop attention grabber, though I really don’t know any Muslim who speaks like a character from the old Muslim Socials like Khan does.

Mouni Roy makes a very fetching ghost in a green gown that clings to her like a creepy vine. The special effects around her character are marginally impressive. Roy has a whale of a time sizzling sexily and slinkily soon after sunset.

The other leading lady has a long way to go, and that’s the politest way to put it.

The showstopper is Sanjay Dutt as a very fancy, dead-serious ghostbuster. No Bill Murray (from Ghost Busters), Dutt digs into the droll role with a lip-smacking relish. I would like to see him and some of the other actors (though not all) back in the sequel, and would also like to hear better, more cheeky, less shrieky dialogues.

For those who love the Stree series, The Bhootnii is another potential fear-farce franchise with a sense of basic humour that takes potshots at the sacred crows—and I do mean cows-without offending anyone. Blessedly, there are no Ammis and Abbas around to pee on the parade. That explains why the unbridled sense of fun never gets overwhelming, even when the bewitched bhootnee becomes too much to handle.

A word on the absence of silence, prevalence of noise: Amar Mohile’s emphatic background score goes well with Santhosh Thundiyil’s flashy visuals.

Views expressed are personal

Rating: ***