Review: ‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ is less ‘boo’ and more ‘oh no’

Horror and comedy have always been hugely popular genres – be it in films, TV serials and now in web series. One always looks forward to being either scared out of one’s wits or laugh ones guts out. So, when ALTBalaji came out with its first ever horror-comedy web series – ‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ – I was really looking forward to watching it. 

ALTBalaji has released 8 episodes of the web series, which have been directed by Farhad Samji, who usually teams up with Sajid Samji. As all its ventures, ALTBalaji had gone on a promotion blitz for ‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ across social media, digital, television, on-ground activations, radio and the print medium, along with OOH and offline campaigns. The OTT platform also partnered with electronics retail store chain Vijay Sales for in-store branding of the series. This apart, ‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ became the first ever web series to be promoted on ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’. 

With a star cast that includes Tusshar Kapoor, Mallika Sherawat, Sanjay Mishra, Krushna Abhishek and Kiku Sharda, one knows that it is not your ‘intellectual’ kind of a horror-comedy show and the trailer for the web-series amply made it clear what’s in store. After movies like the ‘Golmaal’ series, there is still scope for the ‘Dimag nikalke dekho’ type of light entertainment. 

First things first, ‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ has its funny moments. But scary moments? Not really. The setting – an uninhabited heritage hotel – is great. The characters are as dim-witted as can be, making them ripe to be bumped off by the ghostly inhabitants of the hotel. Here I recalled a couple of very old Bollywood horror-comedies – ‘Bhoot Bangla’ and ‘Bhaago Bhoot Aaya’. But the similarities end there. 

Read More: ALTBalaji experiments with horror-comedy; taps TV showrooms for new series

‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ makes use of iconic paranormal characters and incidents from well-known movies – so we see the Nun from ‘The Conjuring’ series, Manjulika from ‘Bhool Bulaiya’, the witch from ‘Stree’ and many more. And then we also get to see Tusshar Kapoor get into his ‘Golmaal’ mode. Though his character is mocked all the time by the others, there is more to him than meets the eye as he has an unseen mysterious side that nobody knows about. 

Mallika Sherawat is seen on any screen after a long time. The series uses her oomph factor to great effect and she does make for an alluring ‘ghostly’ character. 

Krushna Abhishek and Kiku Sharda try hard to bring in the laughs, but the two find it hard to move out of the TV comedy show mode. 

The greatest mystery of all in ‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ is – what is Sanjay Mishra doing in this show? 

All-in-all, ‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ had great potential, but it didn’t work for me. But it is likely to do well among the TG in small towns. If you are the kind of person who looks for logic everywhere, the series is not for you. But if mindless comedies with some horror thrown in works for you, then ‘Booo Sabki Phategi’ is 3-odd hours well spent!