BULBUL REVIEW – NETFLIX – GREAT/TIMEPASS/TRASH

BULBUL

Bulbul is the 2020 Netflix Horror movie starring Tripti Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, Rahul Bose. It has attracted controversies owing to alleged insult to Lord Krishna in one of the scenes. Having kept the biases aside, let us look at the strong and weak points of the movie.

Story

Bulbul is the story of a young girl who is married to an aged Zamindaar at a small age. The story takes place in the year 1881. Years later the girl becomes an enigmatic woman presiding over the household with the Zamindar missing. The village in the meantime is plagued by supernatural murders of man. The brother of the Zamindar returns from abroad and decides to investigate the murders.

Negatives

• Story – It is indeed sad that the movie so well led in acting, visual, and music department falls flat in the most essential department of all that is the story. You can predict the whole story in the first 10 min and the director’s decision to utilize dual timeline further hurts the pacing as the audiences can see the twist from a mile ahead. Though having simple storyline is no barrier for a good horror movie, the director in this movie uses the twist as its crux and as a result, the whole movie falls flat.
• Feminism – It is very common for movies to incorporate ideology and philosophies of the director, writer, and producers. However, the good one does it subtly and there are other factors in the movie to attract the audiences apart from the said ideology. For eg – when I first saw the Matrix, I was blown away by the story, action, concept, and didn’t had any idea of massive philosophical context hidden beneath it. However, in Bulbul’s case, the ideology is ham-fisted and though it never turns preachy, it feels frustrating to see that the same theme being repeated multiple times without the support of any other factors.

Positives

• Tone – A refreshing take on the Indian horror movie genre – Getting a good horror movie is a rarity in India. Even getting a pure horror movie is hard to get as most of the horror movies are either mixed with other genres like romance, action, comedy owing to Box-office worries. However, Bulbul is a refreshing take as it proudly owns the gothic root of its story. Bulbul is a pure horror genre movie. It may be termed as Indian Version of Del Toro’s Crimson Peak.
• Score – The movie features a lush, operatic score by the great Amit Trivedi. Amit Trivedi is able to capture the melancholy tone running across the whole movie.
• Performances – Rahul Bose excels as wealthy zamindar triple Bulbul’s age and size and also as the mentally unstable twin. Paoli Dam plays the part of archetype jealous sister-in-law to the perfection however her character could have been fleshed further. Tripti Dimri who plays the titular character excels both as the woman abused by the patriarchal society or as the reanimated enigmatic woman who exudes an aura around her. She is perfectly complemented by Avinash Tiwari who plays the role of brother-in-law Satya.
• Visuals – The visuals are kind of groundbreaking in the context of Indian Horror movies. Whereas the majority of Indian horror movies suffer from garish lighting to uninspired set, subpar costumes, and subpar visual effects, Bulbul shines due to its cinematography which captures the era perfectly and gives a fairy tale kind of vibe to the whole movie. There is not a particularly gorgeous shot of the moon turning red when Bulbul begins her transformation. We hope that this movie sets the bar for other horror filmmakers.

Controversies –

? Lord Krishna is called as a “HARAMZADA” and Devi Radha is called as a “BESHARAM”.

Allegation of disrespecting Gods, disrespecting Sanatan culture, disrespecting Sanatan Dharma by the right-winger group of the country.

VERDICT – Do not watch if your religious and cultural sentiments are easily offended. On pure Movie criteria, the storyline is poor and there is no scenes to scare you off despite being a horror movie, However you can still give it a watch for the impressive performances, the visuals, and the refreshing tone of the movie which cannot be found in many Indian horror Movies.