I never thought I’d see the day come, but it seems like Bollywood has actually made a trans rights movie. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 tells the story of a new kingdom in Rakht Ghat, West Bengal. As it goes, this is the story of a haunted castle but with a massive twist. The story begins with the return of Rooh Baba, i.e. Ruhaan, the fraud. He’s now become a famous baba and people have been reaching out to him across the country to save them from ghosts. In reality, he’s just helping people con their families. However, one day he’s invited to meet a king, sorry, a king’s brother-in-law, who cons him back. But this isn’t a joke, it’s actually to make sure he’s a fraud and offer him money to con an entire village of vulnerable people. So there begins the journey to Rakht Ghat, where the spirit of Manjulika resides. With that said, let’s quickly dive into everything important that goes down in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.
Spoiler Alert
Why Did Ruhaan Go To Rakht Ghat?
With Meera, the king’s daughter, and her uncle, Ruhaan travels to Rakht Ghat because he’s apparently the reincarnation of the kingdom’s favorite prince from 200 years ago, Debendra Nath. Legend has it that on the night of Durga Ashtami (the 8th night of the Durga Puja), a reincarnation of one of the royals will come back to the palace and kill, or rather end Manjulika for good. Manjulika is the ghost that haunts the palace because she was burnt at the stake 200 years ago, and so the entire royal family now lives in the cow shed (yes, this is a horror comedy). However, Meera promises Ruhaan 1 crore rupees to help her get her family to move back into the palace and essentially save the village. At first, it seems like just as Meera believes, Manjulika is simply a made-up story. There isn’t really a ghost. However, soon we’ll start to see that there’s much more to the picture. Now that Ruhaan’s in town, the whole village puts its faith in him, and hopes he’ll bring the legend to life and rid the kingdom of this horrifying spirit/witch/ghost whatever you’d like to call her. On the other hand, Meera plans on selling the palace so that her family doesn’t have to live in poverty any longer.
Since Ruhaan is in town, the family finally moves back into the palace. The Rajpurohit, i.e. head priest of the kingdom, is the reason Ruhaan is brought to the palace. According to his ancestors, only a reincarnation of one of the royals can get rid of Manjulika for good. Since Ruhaan looks like Prince Debendra, everybody believes he’s the prince himself. Ruhaan makes a big spectacle of his “return” to the kingdom, by celebrating the first night of Durga Puja. In the midst of the celebration, a new guest arrives. This woman is Malika, who is here to restore the palace as a heritage site. As soon as Malika arrives, things start to get strange in the palace. Ruhaan even wonders if it’s actually haunted. He gets nightmares and also hears odd sounds and such. However, in reality, it’s the 3 pandits who have been living there for the last 2 years who are trying to scare the family away because thy don’t want to be kicked out.
How Many Doors Are Protected?
According to the legend, Manjulika’s room can only be opened on the 8th night of the Durga Puja celebration. This is the auspicious time Ruhaan can destroy her. However, Meera and Ruhaan find out from the 3 pandits that the door was already open when they got there 2 years ago and there was nothing there. So, it seems Ruhaan’s job is made easier and they pretend to open it with a grand sacred ritual. He also requests Malika to pretend to be Manjulika for this elaborate prank, but it feels a bit too real when it actually happens. This is because we’re meant to believe Malika is Manjulika for real. She also starts acting strange, especially when it comes to the palace and its belongings. But since the door has been opened and everybody believes the palace is free of ghosts, the royal family makes plans to sell it. While restoring the palace, a wall crumbles and a secret passage is discovered by Malika. This happens to lead them to yet another door with sacred protection. This means the original door wasn’t where Manjulika was locked up, and this is where she truly resides.
This is when we get greeted by another guest, a royal heiress named Mandira, who introduces herself as a potential buyer of the palace. At this time, the Rajpurohit visits the library of the kingdom which has books about the history of the place. There he learns that there wasn’t just one sister but two, the second one being Anjulika! Now since there was no “ghost” behind the first door, Ruhaan agrees to open this one too. Also, by this time, Ruhaan and Meera have fallen in love, and they’ll probably be married soon (I know, it doesn’t make sense). The Rajpurohit warns the family that this one has to be opened only on Ashtami, but Ruhaan is impatient and opens it because the family fears that they’ll lose buyers if word gets out about another secret haunted room.
Who Is Manjulika?
Now the big “Bhool Bhulaiyaa” of this story is who is Manjulika? Sometimes we think it’s Malika and then we think it’s Mandira, but the fact is neither of them is the ghost that Ruhaan is looking for. It seems at the heart of it this is a story about jealousy, and both sisters who eyed the throne and were more than capable of taking it were never given the opportunity because of Debendra’s existence. Yes, he was born out of wedlock with a servant, but he was a man at the end of the day. The sisters plotted to kill their baby brother because they couldn’t stand the idea of him taking the throne. However, on the night of them trying to kill the prince, they noticed he was somehow “different.” Turns out, Debendra was never interested in the crown at all. He actually enjoyed dancing and always felt trapped in his male body. This is why, when everybody would sleep at night, he’d dance his heart away. When the sisters see this behavior, they decide to use it to their advantage and betray him. They pretend like they’re happy to see him dancing and sing for him, when Manjulika (Malika), makes a scene in front of the whole court telling her dad to come see how “manly” his son truly is. Because it’s a spectacle, the king has no choice but to tell the court to kill his son secretly. His curse on his two daughters for making this a public scene is that Manjulika would be known as the killer of her brother and Anjulika would be completely erased from history. So, the person who was burnt at the stake was actually Prince Debendra.
Do The Sisters Burn Debendra Again?
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’s ending begins with a dramatic scene where Malika and Mandira are pinned against each other and Ruhaan has to guess which one of them is Manjulika. This is the night of Ashtami, and he has to use a sacred oil to get rid of the spirit. When he uses this oil around Malika, Mandira becomes the “possessed” one. In truth, neither of them is the Manjulika we’re looking for. They are reincarnations of the two sisters, and Debendra is the spirit that needs to be put to rest. Ruhaan sets the stage for the two women to burn Debendra again, however, this is when they realize that they have been reborn not to burn him, but to ask for forgiveness. The prince had always been trapped, first in his body, and later behind the dreaded door. He never meant harm to anybody, all he wanted was to be accepted as himself, or maybe herself. At the end of the film, the two sisters apologize to Debendra’s spirit for hurting him and wrongfully betraying him. He never wanted to steal the crown from them. The apology works, and the Rajpurohit also realizes that Debendra had to be set free (in every way possible), and not burnt again. The royal family is saved and joy is restored. This is why, at the end of the day, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is a trans-rights film, because not only are the sisters punished for not accepting their brother, but he’s freed when he’s accepted, proving that all he needed was love.
In Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’s ending, I guess the palace will remain with the royal family because of everything they’ve seen. Or at least, that’s what I’d imagine. Additionally, it turns out, Mandira was no royal, she was actually ACP Rathore, a woman on a mission to capture the fraudster, Rooh Baba. On the other hand, Malika decided to restore palaces because she always had visions of this one, so she thought eventually the job will bring her to the right place, i.e. home.
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