Release Date : November 25, 2022
123telugu.com Rating : 2.75/5
Starring: Karan Tacker, Avinash Tiwary, Abhimanyu Singh, Ashutosh Rana, Ravi Kishan, Jatin Sarna, Nikita Dutta, Aishwarya Sushmita
Director: Bhav Dulia
Producer: Shital Bhatia
Music Director: Advait Nemlekar
Cinematography: Hari Nair
Editor: Praveen Kathikuloth
Related Links : Trailer
Cast : Tripti Dimri, Rahul Bose, Avinash Tiwary, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Paoli Dam
Directed by : Anvita Dutt
Produced by : Anushka Sharma
Music by : Amit Trivedi
Cinematography by : Siddharth Diwan
So, continuing the series of reviewing movies and shows during the lockdown period, our today’s pick is the new Hindi film Bulbbul. The film is available on Netflix and let’s see how it is.
What’s it about
The film is set in Bengal in the 19th century. Bulbbul(Tripti Dimri), a young and free-spirited girl is married to Indranil(Rahul Bose) who is three times elder to her. Indranil lives in this ancestral home along with his twin(Rahul Bose) and younger brother Satya and his wife Binodini(Paoli Dam). Things start getting chaotic when Indranil’s brother, Satya starts investigating the mysterious deaths in his village where only men are being killed. Who is killing them? Is there a supernatural angle in this? and what has Bulbbul to do with all this? That forms the story.
What’s good?
What hits you the most is the amazing camera work and art direction. The old school charm and the way the film is set in the royal era on Bengal is just mind-blowing. The costumes, makeup, jewelry, and the whole demeaning camerawork, things look superb in this film. In a way, the production values of Anushka Sharma are top-notch.
Coming to the actors, Tripti Dimri plays the main lead and she is amazing in her role. Her stature and the way she carries various emotions on her face are top-notch. Rahul Bose is superb in his effective role and brings a whole new depth to the film. Paoli Dam is pretty good in her serious role and so were the rest of the cast.
The supernatural thriller has a solid premise and the way director Amar Kaushik narrates this serious tale with a haunting backdrop holds you most of the time. The dialogues are superb and the manner in which superstition, mythology, history, and fantasy are mixed is good. Amit Trivedi’s BGM is top-notch.
What’s bad?
The so-called spooky scenes do not scare you that much as promised in the trailers. The story is a bit complex as it runs in two time zones and will be a bit hard to follow for the audience who do not understand Hindi that much. Apart from Bulbbul’s role, the other characters do not have much depth and why they are behaving in a particular manner in the film is not shown clearly. Apart from the strong technical aspects, more focus should have been put to make the narration simple and easy.
Final Word
Overall, Bulbbul is a film that is a mix of several genres. The supernatural angle, twists, and horror effects have been nicely set up at the beginning. The film has solid technical aspects and amazing visuals but the latter part of the movie slows down with dull narration. The pre-climax and ending are managed well making it a decent watch. Don’t go by the hype and watch it with low expectations.
Rating: 3/5
Starring : Sobhita Dhulipala, Mrunal Thakur, Avinash Tiwary, Janhvi Kapoor, Surekha Sikri, Raghuvir Yadav, Gulshan Devaiah, Anish Bamne, Pavail Gulati
Directed by : Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap
Produced by : Ronnie Screwvala, Ashi Dua
Cinematography : Sylvester Fonseca, Tanay Satam, Kamaljeet Negi, Manu Anand, Mitesh Mirchandani, Ranjan Palit
So, continuing the series of reviewing movies and shows during the lockdown period, our today’s pick is the original web-series Ghost Stories. Directed by four different filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, and Karan Johar, this series is available on Netflix.
What’s it about?
The web series is an anthology about four different stories related to horror. All of these stories have some noted stars like Janhvi Kapoor, Shobita Dhulipala, Mrunal Thakur, and Sukant Goel. Each of the stories is filled with suspense elements with a mysterious and horror backdrop and how the central character thinks about the different scenarios in her/his mind.
What’s good?
The setup of each of these stories is solid and the production values are top-notch. Janhvi Kapoor is top-notch in her role as a nurse and looks realistic in her character. The way she emotes is also good. Shobitha Dhulipala is the best of the lot in the whole series with her gripping performance as the one who loses sight of what is real and what is her nightmare. The build-up to all the conflict points in these stories is different and started off well.
What’s bad?
In Zoya Akhtar’s story, the story is predictable. Janhvi does well, but she doesn’t wow us during the latter part of the episode where her role becomes weak. In Anurag Kashyap’s story, the horror is neither here nor there and it is pretty underwhelming even though Shobitha tries hard to pull it off.
In Dibakar Banerjee’s story, he plays with psychological fear and presents an absurd story that hits you only if you buy it. Many won’t. Finally, in Karan Johar’s story, it is quite posh but looks extremely childish. You know what is to happen right at the end of the first scene and that is how much this story of Karan tends to be predictable.
Final Word :
Overall, Ghost Stories has some of the biggest names in the industry trying a hand at horror with the best of the star cast in their respective stories. But these stories have no-sheen, look silly and over the top. Watch it only if you like horror stuff but there is nothing worth enjoying.
Rating: 2/5
