Bhooty Call: Bhoot Police

The "Scooby Doo" franchise is weird.  It's not just the talking dog, or the occasional continuity where the monsters are real, or the celebrity cameos, or Fred thinking that that ascot makes him look good.  The central premise of "Scooby Doo" is that the world is full of petty criminals and greedy real estate developers who use smoke and mirrors to pretend to be ghosts, and that there are enough fake ghosts to keep the meddling kids and their dog traveling around the country debunking, and yet the public never stops being fooled.  Bhoot Police (2021) may as well take place in the Scoobyverse, since there are enough fake ghosts scattered around India to support two fake exorcists.

Chiraunji (Arjun Kapoor) doesn't want to be a fake exorcist.  He's the son of the famous Ullat Baba, and he's spent years trying to decode the mysterious book his father left him  Older brother Vibhooti (Saif Ali Khan) is happy to be a fraud, though, and the pair travel around the country in a battered bhootmobile, exorcising fake ghosts, earning money and occasionally making peoples' lives better.  Chiraunji is always hoping the next ghost will be real.

At a Tantric fair, the brothers meet Maya (Yami Gautam), who is looking for someone to exorcise a Kichkandi (a kind of Nepali ghost) from her tea plantation.  Ullat Babu bound the Kichkandi twenty seven years ago, so Chirauni feels a sense of responsibility, while Vibhooti just wants to get away from police inspector Chedilal (Javed Jaffrey), who has been Captain Ahabing after them for a while now, for reasons that will eventually be made clear.

At the plantation, the brothers meet Kanika (Jacqueline Fernandez), aspiring social media star and Maya's older sister.  Kanika wants to sell the plantation and open a bar in London, but Maya wants to protect their father's legacy.  Vibhooti also befriends a mute little girl named Titli (Youngykar Dolma), who will be important later.

Two things quickly become clear.  First, the current haunting is another fake.  Second, something very bad happened here decades ago.  Unravelling these two truths is enough to strain the brothers' relationship to the breaking point, and that's when Chedilal finally shows up.

Bhoot Police is a horror comedy.  The comedy is very successful, thanks to strong performances by both the leads (Saif Ali is by turns despicable and delightful, but consistently amusing) and the supporting cast, particularly Jamie Lever and Rajpal Yadav.  It's also . . . reasonably scary.  There are some creepy bits, but the horror definitely takes a backseat to humor and character.

My one complaint is that I would have liked to see more of the Tantric fair.  It's a fascinating setting that could support a whole movie of its own, but here it's mostly used to facilitate a pretty good Indiana Jones joke.