A lot of fun.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I was surprised to see that the sequel to the original 'Bhoothnath' was such a powerhouse of great writing, social conscience, great acting by the kid actor (as well as Boman Irani and Amitabh), and an interesting plot and pacing. As with typical Bollywood films, a suspension of disbelief is required, but this film actually requires less of that than some of the typical romance films where the characters do illogical things at unreasonable times. Each character in this film reacts reasonably to their own situations for once in a Bollywood film. Even the songs were good and reminded me a lot of the original "Annie". This movie has a lot of heart, but doesn't go overboard with the schmaltz. It's about social ills such as corruption and lack of community participation in trying to fix it, but not at all depressing. Feel free to skip the first fluffy film since the back story isn't relevant to the enjoyment of this infinitely better movie.

To give its deserving due, BR begins superbly with a novel thought of a 'Ghost World' and its official works being performed like a government office (the thought first came in FATSO, 2009). But then it starts taking too much time to reach any point and there is neither any excitement nor the lovable charm as seen in the original. Thankfully Boman enters next with his own style of comic portrayal mixed with cruelty like his earlier famous characters, but again quite annoyingly he also has only 2-3 scenes before the intermission without contributing much. Besides a completely social, thought provoking song made on the lines of Michael Jackson's "Heal The World" (with stills showing poverty, hunger, pain and class divide in the society), strongly raises a question that what the director is really up-to and for whom actually he is making this sequel?Nevertheless in the first half, it still somehow remains bearable even when the film is nothing close to any comic entertaining venture involving the kids. But moving into its final hour, it questionably shifts gears and entirely becomes a social, preachy drama telling you all about the importance of voting and the need to elect an honest candidate in a democracy. The progression soon goes into a boring mode indicating towards the dualistic approach of the makers wherein they probably wished to en-cash both the family audience as well as the nation's present election euphoria resulting in a completely avoidable and messy script.In other words, apart from the first 15 interesting moments, nothing is there in this sequel comparing to the promises made in its excellent promos. In fact the theatrical trailer itself is the sum of all the enjoyable scenes in the film which keep coming at long gaps, serving you a lot less than the expected. Few surprising cameos are also thrown in to generate some kind of excitement in the audience which doesn't work and even the hit track "Party To Banti Hai" fails to make any kind of impact beginning all of a sudden, without any fine build up.Yes, admitting its merit, the message conveyed by the makers is no doubt important and perfectly apt in the current scenario of ongoing Lok Sabha elections in the county. Yet the 100 crores question is that what are these messages and lengthy preachy sequences doing in a film which is supposed to be made for the kids below 14 years? Elections have nothing to do with them in this tender age and hence they are least interested to see anything related to voting, candidates, vote buying, bogus voting, TV debates, speeches and more. So why such a script was written, chosen and approved by the production house as the sequel of BHOOTHNATH remains out of my understanding really.Coming to the performance, the Senior Bachchan still has everything in his persona to lighten up the screen and he does that well in his baritone voice and unique funny expressions too like an institution. But still I somehow found the body energy missing and the movements too little, may be due to the age factor coming into the act inevitably. Boman Irani is as usual flawless as the opportunist don-builder- politician becoming more active only post the intermission. Sanjay Mishra, Brijender Kala, Usha Jadhav & Usha Nadkarni play it fine in their supporting characters whereas the three key figures of the Industry add nothing in their one scene cameos really. So in the end,Parth Bhalerao (The kid – Akhrot) remains the ultimate winner above all, showing amazing confidence standing amongst veterans such as Amitabh Bachchan and Boman Irani. Musically the soundtrack had two already hit party songs, particularly the Honey Singh track quite famous among the kids. But again, the director is unable to use them well and they still remain more enjoyable as individual tracks only on the dance floors. Cinematography convincingly executes the 'Bhoot' sequences as required but the background score is not able to create any kind of upbeat energy as it was there in MR. India in many similar sequences (like the one where Anil Kapoor comes to meet Anu Kapoor in the office just like Amitabh goes to meet Sanjay Mishra here). Keeping the focus right on the subject only, the script doesn't have any love or female angle as per the usual format but despite the fact it becomes too long and should have been wrapped up in just 120-30 minutes instead of 150.Regarding the direction, frankly this would have been a perfect subject for Raj Kumar Hirani as I personally felt, since director Nitesh Tiwari completely ruins a potential plot with his confused handling, satisfying neither the kids nor the adults. The film keeps hanging in the mid with all the educative election insertions and I really couldn't imagine how on earth that was all conceived in the film aiming the kids coming for the sequel of their favourite BHOOTHNATH. Besides there are certain flaws pointing towards the careless writing too like why Bhoothnath doesn't go back to the Bhoothland after he successfully scares few kids fulfilling his only task, Why he keeps staying on earth after getting the task done, Why the table tennis is being played with rackets floating in the air when they were all Bhoots only living together visible to each other and why TV channels did not make it an issue of silly superstition being spread, instead of calling Bhoothnath for a Live interview?Summing it all BHOOTHNATH RETURNS is just a misguided film having nothing in its content as per the expectations raised and the kid residing in me was really disappointed watching all those heavy-boring scenes, especially in its second half.

I was rather disappointed with the movie. My expectation, based on the other reviews, was that this is a good movie to watch for kids, though a little serious and dragged in some places.Instead, what I saw was a lot of dragging that utterly bored the kids (and adults as well to some extent). Moreover there is a violent scene in which a kid is assaulted, which makes this movie completely unsuited for young kids.That said, the first part is brilliant, and I thought the story was well written. The concept of a friendly ghost is well woven with current topics. The director could have handled the story better and could have definitely cut the narrative to a crisp pace.

If it weren't for the sermonizing, and loss of genre context, I'd have given this movie a 10 for effort. More on that later.Haven't seen the first one, so I do not know firsthand how this one compares. However, everyone I know who's seen the first one too, says this is the better effort. I'll take their word for it, since I have no intention of watching the first one anyway, since word is that its quite sappy. The filmmakers seem to have understood that the novelty of having a ghost in the narrative has worn off for seasoned movie-goers, so they kinda go a different route after a little bit of been there-done that. Satire is woven into the tale, though not as much as the movie needs. It turns preachy and sermonizes much past the hour where the audience starts hemming and hawing, and its holier-than-thou position on electoral responsibilities is where it fatally mis-steps, though, considering the milieu, it does what is expected in that department, where everyone gets the message only of its driven home with a sledge- hammer. The makers know this, and try to temper the message by having a few in- jokes at the expense of the celebrity community, but they are too few, and too far between. The positioning of a couple of cameos is also convenient, but does not detract from the preachy, message-brandishing documentary feel overall.The performances are solid/sincere, though Irani does what he's been doing since the Munnnabhai movies, and esp. 'Khosla ka Ghosla'. And this is perhaps the year of Sanjay Mishra, with this and 'Aankhon Dekhi'. Subtlety is an art, and this guy's the master.The technical values are right up there, esp. with the production design with the use of real locations (not the fantasy ones),and the score is above average. Continuity is maintained well, and that is a feat for something out of Bollywood. Neither completely embracing the mainstream nor the niche market, this one's a pretty decent efforts considering what came before it, and today's landscape of movies that are being released.Verdict: I'm sure the tone won't go down well with the independent- minded, but this one deserves an audience for the effort it makes in trying out something different, though they could've done without said hammer.