Bulbbul Review Anushka Sharma's Netflix Production

After Paatal Lok, Anushka Sharma's next production Bulbbul is all set to join the list of Indian shows and films on Netflix. This horror or supernatural thriller film is directed by Anvita Dutt and includes Tripti Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, Rahul Bose, Paoli Dam (of Kaali fame), and Parambrata Chattopadhyay in lead roles. Anushka Sharma's tweet explains this film as a "tale about self-discovery, and justice, wrapped in tradition, secret and intrigue".

Bulbbul, the latest Indian initial from Netflix, is a disaster. In a smarter film, its title character- Mrs. Bulbbul Chaudhary (Tripti Dimri, from Laila Majnu) - would have made an interesting bad guy. For most of Bulbbul, she's decorated in the most splendid sarees and jewellery. Whenever she's sitting idle, which is almost always, as the woman of the house, Bulbbul fans herself with peacock feathers. And she makes no effort to hide her true sensations, smiling ear-to-ear or heartily making fun of the predicament of others. Regrettably, Bulbbul is stuck in a dull, inert, and outrageous film, the kind whose plot you can totally anticipate after viewing the first couple of minutes. It's just the film's characters- other than for Bulbbul- who fail to see otherwise, to the point where all of it feels like a giant trick, as if they are merely pretending to act oblivious.

Bulbbul- a period supernatural tale set in Bengal- centers on the folklore of chudail, a woman who rises from the dead (with inverted legs) after an unnatural death. The English subtitles equate it as "demon-woman" but her behavior on Bulbbul is more similar to a vampire. Bulbbul's Bengal setting makes no sense.

You would not even know Bulbbul was set in British India by simply enjoying the film, considering that there's no trace of the British, except for a throwaway dialogue. The Netflix film opens with a kid marriage, as a young Bulbbul (Ruchi Mahajan, from Yeh Teri Galiyan) is wedded off to a much older male, Indranil Thakur (Rahul Bose, from Shaurya).

He film's story unfolds in two parallel timelines thereafter. There's the one in 1901 as Satya examines a series of murders, entirely of guys, which are associated to a chudail by town folk, for the bite marks on the victims. And the other includes flashbacks, as we witness Bulbbul continue to pine after Satya and suffer a list of atrocities from everybody else in the home. It's apparent to everyone and their granny that Bulbbul had a thing for Satya which she's the chudail- something she all but hints at on multiple occasions-- however it takes ages for the other characters to figure it out. And to make matters worse, Bulbbul keeps hammering house the very same point throughout multiple scenes, losing time on a film that runs just 90 minutes.

The unskilled writing and direction are matched by a lazy background score on Bulbbul, consisting of generic tunes that appear like the first search result you’d get on Google after typing "scary music". Diwan's camerawork is the only technical element of Bulbbul that doesn't call attention to itself, with the other departments seemingly succumbing to the director's wishes.

More Details

Time: - 1h 34m

Release Date: - June 24, 2020

Supernatural: - Horror Movies

Subtitles: - English, Hindi

Watch offline: - Available to download

Audio: - Hindi - Audio Description, English, Hindi [Original]

Cast: - Tripti Dimri, Parambrata Chatter jee, Avinash Tiwary, Paoli Dam, Rahul Bose, Veera Kapur

Genres: - Hindi-Language Movies, Period Pieces, Social Issue Dramas, Horror Movies, Supernatural Horror Movies