Bulbbul

Bulbul.2019. Anvita Dutt.

Set in a pre independent Bengal, Bulbbul narrates a story of a child bride & her emotional & physical abuse at various stages of her life. Just like the production house's earlier films Phillauri & Pari Bulbbul also majorly focuses on female oppression, trauma & various stigma attached to their behaviours. The cinematographer has used heavily saturated tones of Red in almost every frame to justify violence, anger & seduction. Most frames & its aesthetics resembles majorly by Indian mythological folklores & celebrated paintings by Raja Ravi Verma. Even though the entire film looks opulent & magnanimous with fairly decent performances from its major lead, it lacks in giving importance to its subplots, character journey and entire intelligent messaging.

Set during the colonial regime, men from a village who has history of female abuse turns up dead. An aristocratic man returns from London to the same village. One of his elder bro was also found dead like the rest of the men, his another elder bro moved outta the family's ancestral mansion. People claim that the murders r done by a witch as inverted footprints r found near the crime scenes.

I liked the film as it has the same vibe of The Hound of the Baskervilles. It has a creepy forest filled with year round fog, a chariot, old ruins, big mansion, swamps, etc. The climax is predictable but the story is thought provoking n very relevant. This ain't ur typical Bollywood film with the songs n unnecessary subplots. The drawback is the red color n lack of suspicious characters. Since it is a period film n a gothic horror story based on a folklore legend, the over indulgence of too much color ruined the feel of the movie. Everything is colorful from the peacock feathers to the paan leaf. They shud have aimed at the black n white cinematography for the atmosphere n tone.







One q. Where exactly did the elder bro moved out n why the hell did he come back later n why sleep alone in that mansion.

I really don't understand why some people have rated it so bad, amazing performance by almost the entire cast, for a change it was nice to see Paoli been overshadowed, matching visuals and tempo keeps you latched on to your screen

Loved the movie. Phoenomenal job by the whole cast especially the lead actress Tripti Dimra playing Bulbul. The story suits the modern era as instead of showing jump scares n gory faces, it actually shows the anguished soul and the pain behind it. It also sheds light on Child marriage, Gender inequality, Patriarchal society & dirty secrets in rich families. Watch it if you're interested in a good story, great acting, and perfect visuals. But if you just wanna see a typical horror movie, this is not the one for you. I'm taking 1 star off coz I was kinda disappointed by the ending. Other than that it's a well made movie.

Special mention to Rahul Bose, Paoli Dam, Parambratha, Avinash Tiwary for the fantastic & a very realistic portrayal of their respective characters. Kudos to writer for writing this brilliant story and last but not least congratulations to Anushka Sharma for bringing another gem under her production.

All in all it's a great one time watch movie.

I can see people trashing this movie on various aspects but I loved this and it's not at all a bad movie and I loved maybe because I love the asynchronous screenplays and slow paced dramas. People were expecting some horror and this movie delivered something beyond their expectations. But there is a lot in the movie to admire. In few scene the reddish tone that was used for portraying revenge and blood was overdone and could've been avoided. There was not any other visual flaw there. The background music was good in pieces.

Everything was revealed and explained in the climax but this is not a unique story neither the revelation is unexpected. But the way screenplay unfolded was quite good. Most of people must have guessed it already halfway through the movie. The debutant director, Anvita Dutt failed to deliver the best horror movie of the year, which this movie had potential of, only if it would've designed and presented properly. But a one time watch won't harm your IQ either.