Let’s twist again, like we did last summer.

Bhoot Bungla (1965) has all the elements of a fine psychological thriller. On the very day that Rekha (Tanuja) returns to India after three years in England, her father is murdered. Days later, her insane uncle Ram (Nana Palsikar), who hints that he knows the killer’s identity, is murdered as well. Her surviving uncle Shyam (Nasir Hussain) decides to move what’s left of the family to the city, and leaves the ancestral house in the care of the creepy, snaggletoothed gardener, but that’s not the end of Rekha’s problems; soon she’s tormented by constant phone calls from a mysterious man who promises to kill her soon.

Of course, this is Bollywood, where genre does not work that way. During a rare night out, Rekha is introduced to Mohan (Mehmood) and his friends in the Youth Club, a band of wholesome youths who spend all their time doing good deeds, playing harmless pranks, and dancing the Twist. (They really, really love the Twist.) Despite the rules of the Youth Club clearly stating that members should “love everything but women,” Mohan is promptly smitten, and when he learns about Rekha’s troubles, he puts the entire Youth Club to work using their wacky disguises and dancing skills to help her.

It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that the ghosts in Bhoot Bungla are of the Scooby Doo variety; from the start it’s assumed that the mysterious murderer threatening Rekha is entirely human, and there’s no indication of anything ghostly until Mohan and fellow Youth Club member Stocky (legendary Bollywood composer R. D. Burman) spend a night in the old mansion being terrified by men dressed in the same skeleton costumes that would later be seen in Karz.

In another movie, the sudden changes in tone from suspense to squeaky clean romantic comedy to a sudden outbreak of West Side Story to slapstick ghostbusting and back would feel disjointed. That’s not the case here, perhaps because the plot is so simple and straightforward. Bhoot Bungla is charming, and more than a little silly. That’s a good thing.