Bhooth Bangla, Priyadarshan’s long-awaited reunion with Akshay Kumar, is a classic case of how one of Bollywood’s most successful director-actor pairs can’t get it right without their third musketeer, the writer. Neeraj Vora, who penned the screenplay and dialogues of most Akshay-Priyadarshan past hits, passed away in 2017. Vora, an actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker, was the co-architect of the comedy subgenre popularized by the actor-director duo. Their last collaboration was Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), another horror comedy, which went on to spawn a franchise of its own, helmed by Anees Bazmee and starring Kartik Aaryan. Thus, comparisons with Bhooth Bangla was inevitable, given the narrative structure (first half is all comedy with a spattering of horror; second half is all horror with no laughs), the ensemble cast (Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal, and Manoj Joshi were a part of Bhool Bhulaiyaa, while Tabu played a classical dancer in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2), and even the setting (both films were primarily shot at Chomu Palace, Jaipur). But after watching Bhooth Bangla, I’m happy to confirm it’s nowhere close to …