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Bulbbul Review : There's more to Bulbbul than meets the eye

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Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Shivani Dubey 374 days ago

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User RAGHU 849 days ago

Tripti is Shines on This Thriller.

Girish Patel 1579 days ago

A very weird movie, hard to follow the plot and a confusing ending. Don't waste your time on this one.

Member 1622 days ago

Nice movie and has a great storyline... I like it....

Vivand Biz 1630 days ago

A badly made and badly pictured semi horror film with no realism, poor acting and one of the worst set productions I have seen in a long time. How netflix could host such a poorly made production (of Anushka who obviously has no taste) is a mystery..

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Bulbbul Reviews

An anti-fairytale at its very core, this feminist fable is arguably the most gorgeous looking thing to have come out of Hindi cinema all year.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 14, 2021

This densely layered and visually stunning Bollywood import plays a little like the classic Japanese horror film Audition.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2020

Bulbbul reflects upon this thought as it condemns the culture of silence that women are subjected to. It reminds you what you are truly capable of, once you decide to avenge injustice and seek redemption.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 29, 2020

1 of the questions the film throws up&doesn't answer is if the binary between being a devi or chudail is the only recourse feminine power has to navigate in this patriarchal set up. No easy answers in sight but nevertheless a visually appealing film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 10, 2020

Whilst Bulbbul doesn't fulfil the potential we've seen out of the country's genre film scene, it's still a lush and disturbing hybrid of folk-horror and fairytale.

Full Review | Jul 10, 2020

Bulbbul isn't the sort of spine-chilling film that will spook you out of your mind but it is engaging enough not to ever let you off the hook.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 8, 2020

Though Dutt erases the misogynistic and patriarchal overtones of [the] chudail [folklore for] a feminist spin, ... she doesn't add to it in any meaningful manner.

Full Review | Jul 3, 2020

That Bulbbul still manages to make for a hypnotic experience is a quiet triumph, a testament to Dutt's distinct storytelling and efficient casting.

Full Review | Jun 30, 2020

Thinly written but meticulously shot, producer Anushka Sharma's follow-up to the brilliant Paatal Lok is a bit of a letdown.

Overall, it's a fantastic debut for Anvita Dutt. Bulbbul feels like it's been directed by an experienced hand and not a newbie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 30, 2020

Among other joys that it offers then is the fact that Bulbbul is one of those rare contemporary Hindi films to travel beyond the Hindi belt and Punjab to a culture and place that Bollywood does not often visit these days.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 30, 2020

For a narrative inspired by director Anvita Dutt's affection for words, perhaps it's both ironic and fitting that Bulbbul wears the distinct visual aura of a dreamer...

Suspenseful, visually arresting, and chock-full of charismatic performances, Bulbbul is an incredibly impressive debut from director Anvita Dutt and a must-see for your next movie night.

Bulbbul is fashioned as a sharply relevant fable. It is a powerfully feminist, revisionist tale of a woman wronged, and it is told with economy, precision, style and feeling.

Dimri is a stunner who speaks volumes with her eyes. And the audience can do little but stay enraptured.

There appears to be a layer or two missing in the screenplay, but whatever is on the screen for 94 minutes is smart, sensitive and haunting.

Produced by Anushka Sharma, this supernatural thriller has the right spirit and soul...

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Bulbbul movie review: Pretty but problematic, Anushka Sharma’s Netflix film is a flawed fairytale

Bulbbul movie review: thinly written but meticulously shot, producer anushka sharma’s follow-up to the brilliant paatal lok is a bit of a letdown..

Bulbbul Director - Anvita Dutt Cast - Tripti Dimri, Rahul Bose, Avinash Tiwary, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Paoli Dam

Over-directed but underwritten, Bulbbul is a visually striking film that is let down by a weak script.

From debutante director Anvita Dutt (whose track record as dialogue writer includes the runaway hit Queen but also Shaandaar, Kambakkht Ishq and Housefull), Netflix’s Bulbbul is the second streaming film this month, after Amazon’s Gulabo Sitabo , that is set inside a foreboding mansion. But while the dignified ‘haveli’ in Shoojit Sircar’s movie took on a life of its own, the one in Bulbbul, like the film itself, can’t help but feel artificial.

As an industry, Bollywood has been famously incapable of producing good horror cinema, with the odd exceptions, of course. Invariably, horror in India is combined with other genres such as musical or romance — ghosts, you see, mustn’t get in the way of the films’ box office potential. So for Bulbbul to whole-heartedly embrace its Gothic horror origins — it’s Kamal Amrohi’s Mahal by way of Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak — is rather refreshing.

In 1881, Bulbbul, a precocious girl with an appetite for scary stories is married into a wealthy ‘zamindar’ family. In a deft move it is revealed that her husband isn’t the boy Satya, with whom she’s struck a quick friendship, but rather Satya’s sinister-looking elder brother Indranil, the Thakur, played by Rahul Bose. The Thakur has a twin, Mahendra, who is developmentally challenged and is married to a conniving woman named Binodini. Fate has forever sentenced her to play second fiddle to Bulbbul in the household, something that Binodini, the ‘chhoti bahu’, is very bothered by.

The characters established, the films jumps 20 years into the future. Satya, on his way back to the ‘haveli’ after having studied law in London, is informed that a series of mysterious deaths have taken place in the time that he has been away. The villagers seem to believe that it is the doing of a witch that haunts the surrounding forest. Satya, in proper Jonathan Harker mode, dismisses the claims as old wives’ tales.

But a lot has changed in the years that Satya has been gone. His brother Mahendra has been killed in his sleep, and his other brother, the Thakur, has disappeared. Bulbbul, meanwhile, is no longer the spirited young girl that she used to be; she has now fully embraced her life as the ‘Thakurain’ of the house, lounging on settees all day, being fed paan and sherbet, exuding a playful yet unsettlingly self-assured energy.

It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together, but Bulbbul certainly treats its audience as if it is the first film they’ve seen in their lives.

Because the characters are so thinly written and the surprises so carelessly telegraphed, Dutt’s film is forced to rely more heavily on technical details. For instance, it would have been wonderful to explore the character of Binodini with more patience. She’s an interesting foil to Bulbbul; entrapped instead of empowered, scheming instead of self-reliant.

Swathed perpetually by the red glow of a blood moon, the nighttime sequences in Bulbbul are undeniably gorgeous, besides a couple of noticeable instances where cinematographer Siddharth Diwan’s camera basically breaks character, and surrenders its otherwise stately presence in favour of flashy handheld mayhem. It simply doesn’t gel. You’ll notice it, too.

Bulbbul also features a lush, orchestral score by the great Amit Trivedi, evoking memories of his terrific (but of iffy integrity) work in Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera. In a way, there is a strain of melancholy that runs through both movies, and Trivedi is able to capture it.

But employing a needlessly non-linear narrative turns out to be an exercise in futility, because virtually every twist can be seen coming from a mile away. And because so much of the film feels so deliberately planned, Dutt routinely finds herself drowning in style over substance, her script devoid of spontaneity.

A couple of scenes in particular, both involving violence against women, are questionably staged. Instead of evoking anger, or even repulsion, by shooting the first scene in stylised slow-motion that would made Zack Snyder twitch in ecstasy, Dutt essentially distracts the audience’s attention from the horror that is unfolding and turns it instead towards the immaculate beauty of her frames. The second scene, involving a rape, goes on for way longer than it has any reason to. What this does is play into the (problematic) trope that in order to blossom, a woman must first be (violently) broken. There’s a reason why the rape-revenge subgenre of horror is considered outdated.

Also read: Revenge movie review: The most provocative film of 2018 invades your home, abetted by Netflix

I admire the fact that producers Anushka Sharma and her brother Karnesh are continuing to champion genre cinema, despite falling short of expectations more often than not. The disappointment is only amplified because the sibling duo’s brilliant Paatal Lok is still so fresh in our minds. But even though Bulbbul never quite takes flight, neither does it fall to its death. It’s no Mrs Serial Killer . But it isn’t Sacred Games either.

Follow @htshowbiz for more The author tweets @RohanNaahar

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A man returns home after years to find his brother's child bride now grown up and abandoned, and his ancestral village plagued by mysterious deaths. A man returns home after years to find his brother's child bride now grown up and abandoned, and his ancestral village plagued by mysterious deaths. A man returns home after years to find his brother's child bride now grown up and abandoned, and his ancestral village plagued by mysterious deaths.

• Anvita Dutt
• Triptii Dimri
• Avinash Tiwary
• 467 User reviews
• 34 Critic reviews
• 8 wins & 12 nominations total

Top cast 41

• (as Tripti Dimri)

• Little Bulbbul

• Little Satya
• (as Varun Paras Buddhadev)
• Bulbbul's Father

• Master Dinkar

• Indranil's Maashi

• (as Chandra Prakash Thakur)
• Gaadiwaan's Wife 1
• Gaadiwaan's Son
• Gaadiwaan's Wife 2
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Though translated in the subtitles as "demon woman", they are referring to a specific supernatural being called a Churel. In South Asian folkloric tradition, aggrieved women who die in childbirth or at the hands of abusive in-laws come back as a demonic revenant creature called a Churel. Churel are shape shifters who cannot hide their backwards-facing feet. They typically take on the appearance of a beautiful woman in the trees who lures men into secluded forests to kill them and steal their vitality. A woman who returns as a Churel is said to target the male members of her former family first, in order to get revenge. Within Hindu belief, Churels may become into dakinis (flesh eating female demons/ demi gods) and serve the goddess Kali, joining the goddess' routine in feasting on human flesh and blood.
• Connections Referenced in Flix Forum: Bulbbul (2023)

User reviews 467

Impactful aesthetics & perfomace with weak climax.

• Jun 23, 2020
• How long is Bulbbul? Powered by Alexa
• June 24, 2020 (United States)
• Official site (Netflix)
• Clean Slate Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Runtime 1 hour 34 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Bulbbul film review: feminist storytelling done right.

Bulbbul surprises with its near-perfect production and a genuine feminist message.

Indie Journal

Jun 29, 2020 6:25 pm.

Pay to keep good journalism alive

- Amit Bhalerao and Viplov Wingkar

'A child bride grows up to be an enigmatic woman presiding over her household, harbouring a painful past as supernatural murders of men plague her village.' - Netflix India.

As we know, Netflix India's horror track record has been very poor in the past two years and there was not much excitement at all for Bulbbul after the disappointment one experienced with Betaal.

But lo and behold, Bulbbul comes in and surprises everyone with its near-perfect production and a genuine feminist message. Bulbbul is the directorial debut of Anvita Dutt, produced by Anushka Sharma's Clean Slate Films production house.

This review is full of spoilers to help discuss the themes and symbolism in the film so we suggest one watch the film first and come here again for greater insights.

The plot of the film

The film opens with a five-year-old girl Bulbbul (Tripti Dimri) getting married to a fully grown adult Bade Thakur, Indranil (Rahul Bose) in the Bengal presidency of 1881. Bade Thakur has two younger siblings, Satya (Avinash Tiwary) and Mahendra. While Mahendra is already grown-up but mentally challenged, his sibling Satya is of somewhat the same age as Bulbbul.

Over the next fifteen years, Bulbbul and Satya form a friendly bond due to their similar age, and due to this Bulbbul naturally falls in love with Satya. Indranil starts to suspect Bulbbul of infidelity and sends away his brother Satya to England for his further education.

Satya returns to his home in Bengal after five years and finds out that some kind of killer is hunting the villagers down. While the villagers are sure that the murders are done by a forest witch; Satya is sure that a killer is on loose and he sets to bring down the killer.

What's to like

The Idea of women's liberation from cultural, social and sexual exploitation in the colonial casteist feudal India and the mythological parallels

While films and shows in India tend to always appear as edgy and over the top when talking about feminism, Bulbbul actually presents a genuinely heartfelt feminist message. The feminist aspect of the film strongly resembles the position of women, the exploitative one, in Hindu mythology.

*MAJOR SPOILERS* Bulbbul is married to the Bade Thakur but she becomes the property of all the three Thakur brothers just like Draupadi in Mahabharata. The character of Satya can be said to be a character resembling Krishna. While Draupadi feels or other women feel Leela for Krishna, Krishna himself only aligns himself as their sakha or friend. Same way Satya acts like a Krishna to Bulbbul's Draupadi but yeah there are differences. On the other hand, Dr. Sudip can be said to be the Karna of this story. He is masculine, compassionate, and intelligent like Karna. Sudip is in love with Bulbbul but his social class and position make him artificially incapable of achieving that love just Like Karna's caste made him unable to achieve Draupadi's love.

Another woman that Bulbbul reminds us of is Sita from Ramayana. Indranil suspects Bulbbul with infidelity and punishes her just like Ram suspected of Sita. While Sita had to go through the agnipariksha, Bulbbul had to go through domestic violence. Satya in this way can be said to represent Ravan who never touched Sita. Though Sita's agnipariksha only intended to burn her; Bulbbul's agnipariksha results in the burning down of a whole forest.

Finally, Bulbbul also represented Maa Kali as Kali the Liberator. But instead of the devi possessing and liberating her, Bulbbul herself gets liberated on her own and starts killing all the paedophiles and abusive men of the town which resulted in the liberation of more women.

Bulbbul's story can be said to be that of the Earth and the males in the film can be said to be the representative of human greed. When Bulbbul, like the Earth, gets repeatedly exploited she becomes numb to all of it but the men of the human greed keep going on with her which results in the burning of Bulbbul, the creationist, or Earth.

The toe ring in the film symbolizes the objectification of women as a mere machine of production and also the patriarchal control that men possess over women. When the ring in her toes gets destroyed Bulbbul is liberated from that control.

The film showed the fact that women don't share any sisterhood even if they are exploited equally. In a capitalist structure, women are the biggest exploiters of women. This is because even in exploitation women tend to place their material interests in the forefront rather than compassion. There should be a comradeship that results in the unshackling of patriarchal chains but it is not possible in a capitalist economy supported by the patriarchal structure.

The film also touched the idea that women in rich families tend to be abused more than the average lower class or even lower-middle-class families. When Chhoti Bahu (Paoli Dam) tells Bulbbul that there are big mysteries in big mansions, ignore them and drown in whatever material desires you get to fulfill in a big house. Bulbbul is told to hide her being raped just to preserve the material prosperity attained through this patriarchal exploitation.

Wo pagal hai, par kya hua, resham milega, sona milega, wo pagal hai par uska bhai toh hai na, wo tumhe khush rakhega, woh tumhe sab dega. This whole thinking may feel like an old practice but trust me it is rooted in Indian society. Women are married to rich men even when they are abusive, womanizers, or alcoholic. Baccha hone ke baad sudhar jayega, paise toh hai, accha kamata hai, filhaal thoda seh lo.

A very critical point that the film touches is that the men have the privilege to consider them as Robinhood or some nonmystical hero for justice but the same kind of freedom is not available to the women and then women like Bulbbul have to take the form of Kali, a goddess to seek justice. Because we see women as an example of greatness only in the form of a Goddess or a Queen.

While Bulbul's protest to this structural violence with her own violence may feel justifiable in that historical context we have to remember that violence cannot be the answer to the patriarchal exploitation of women. Men are not born criminals. The exploitation of women is an ideological act first and foremost that results in the physical act of violence. To counter this we have to change the deep rooting of these patriarchal ideas through a by changing their minds through ideological dialogues.

There are more feminist ideas here but this will be it. One appreciates the feminist tone of this film, it feels natural, real, and not too on the nose. Horror does not have to be supernatural, horror is what reality is.

The Technical Aspects

Bulbbul is a real masterpiece when it comes to the camerawork and cinematography. From the opening sequence, one is pleased with the aesthetics, the set pieces, the colour choices, and the wardrobe used for the film.

See the wide range of colours used in the film. The tone and the feel were on point in this film. An astounding job by the cameraman, set designer, and the director. The film has this perfect vibe of the 1800s and the colour scheme is perfectly conveying the flow of all the emotions whether its fear, love, or mystery.

Another fact is that film does not hold back when showing some intense scenes. I literally felt two of the most miserable scenes in the film unwatchable; not because they were cinematically bad but because they kept going on and on and I couldn't watch such a real character to suffer so much. The soundtrack was good if not memorable.

Tripti Dimri is stunning!

Tripti Dimri has given an outstanding performance as Bulbbul. She is innocent, magnetic, playful, vengeful, and mystifying at the same time. This is the performance she will be remembered for. She has perfectly encapsulated the creationist and the destructive force that a woman can be. You will fall in love with her once you watch this film.

We are seeing Rahul Bose after a long time on screen. His performance required that sociopathic air and the shades of violence that come with it and he portrayed it with ease. Excellent performance on his part.

Paoli Dam's portrayal of jealous, lustful, and broken Chhoti Bahu was good too. Other actors were perfect too; none of them felt unnecessary or incompetent. 

What doesn't work

Yeah, we were so much into the message that we forgot about the plot.

While one may love the symbolism and the message, the plot leaves the film to be very predictable from the get-go. A film first and foremost should be enjoyable and it is enjoyable but we have to overlook some plot details.

There is nothing new plotwise and while the film feels completely fine till the big reveal; later it succumbs to an aimless or very unsatisfying conclusion. Though the film leaves an impact but the last fifteen or so minutes were very bland compared to what we saw in the former part. There is nothing much to dislike other than that.

Though the film is not perfect plotwise but is a near-perfect representation of feminism and that rarely happens with Indian cinema. The production quality is top-notch, the film is beautiful to look at and I want everyone to watch Bulbbul just for the message and the acting.

One will definitely love Bulbbul!

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Bulbbul On Netflix Is A Haunting Cocktail Of History And Horror

Director: Anvita Dutt

Cast: Tripti Dimri, Rahul Bose, Paoli Dam, Avinash Tiwary, Parambrata Chatterjee

Streaming on: Netflix

On the eve of the boy's departure to London, the girl meets him in the courtyard. "How will we ever complete this story?" she asks tearfully. The story she refers to is a book they've been writing together. It has both their names – Bulbbul Chaudhary and Satyajeet Thakur – on the cover. But what he doesn't realise is that she is also asking about their story: Bulbbul, former child bride and lady of a countryside manor, and Satya, her adoring brother-in-law. She is devastated that her childhood companion is leaving. The adults have no time for her adolescence. She only ever married into a life of diminished royalty – her stoic husband (Rahul Bose), his mentally disabled brother (Rahul Bose) and the brother's cunning wife (Paoli Dam) – because Satya lent some truth to her living.  This scene is infused with an unmistakable sense of literature: a book, a story, lyrical names, an untold tragedy. It reflects the textual legacy of the entire film: a period-fantasy reimagination of the unrequited relationship between Bengali laureate Rabindranath Tagore and his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi. Like Nastanirh , the semi-autobiographical novella that inspired Satyajit Ray 's Charulata ("The lonely wife"), Bulbbul , too, is set in the Bengal Presidency of 1901 – a British-Indian world where bhadraloks expect from their housewives the kind of silent subservience that the rulers expect from their latest Asian colony. The leads are Tripti Dimri and Avinash Tiwary , actors who last starred together in Laila Majnu , another film based on a famous literary work of star-crossed love. For a narrative inspired by director Anvita Dutt's affection for words, perhaps it's both ironic and fitting that Bulbbul wears the distinct visual aura of a dreamer.

NH10 was a bleak revenge thriller, Phillauri a supernatural family drama, Pari a supernatural folk-horror fantasy – and Bulbbul is a haunting combination of all these themes

Its foundation might be paper, but Bulbbul is a film of sight and sound. The nights leak ruby redness, the colour of danger and courage and menstruation. Bulbbul's abusive marriage also evokes the profound BoJack Horseman line: When you look at someone through rose-coloured glasses, all the red flags just look like flags. Similarly, when we look at the rose-tinted screen, all the blood just looks like water. This tone informs a movie that is essentially centered on the myth of a man-eating "chudail" (she-demon). The past bleeds blue, the colour of trust and royalty and masculinity. A woman's bare feet become a recurring theme, both in sickness and in health, as if to subvert the idea of small feet amounting to the right "measure" for marital life; jewellery and toe-rings are framed as symbols of control. In context of how it reconstructs feminism as a genre, Bulbbul follows in the footsteps of every Anushka Sharma film production (Clean Slate Films) so far. NH10 was a bleak revenge thriller, Phillauri a supernatural family drama, Pari a supernatural folk-horror fantasy – and Bulbbul is a haunting combination of all these themes. Siddarth Diwan's striking cinematography and Meenal Agarwal's production design turn its palette into a goth-pop portrait of contrasts. A scene featuring a wounded woman bandaged in her bed morphs into a morbid symbol of broken puppetry. Another, featuring a forest fire, becomes a violent dance of primary colours.

The Bulbbul score is a rare instance where the music, too, tells a hidden story – of blossoming not by will but by necessity. Of saving in order to be saved

But the dark-fairytale vibe is driven home by Amit Trivedi 's score. The violin-heavy central tune is nursery-rhyme deceptive at first, but it builds into a melancholic Bhansali-like crescendo – the aural equivalent of a lonely peacock finally spreading her wings. (Bulbbul even uses a peacock-feather pankh to fan herself, as if it were an extension of her hands). The way the images are conceived, cut and merged can only have been written to music. Too often, original soundtracks are composed to punctuate emotions and manipulate the viewer into feeling. The Bulbbul score is a rare instance where the music, too, tells a hidden story – of blossoming not by will but by necessity. Of saving in order to be saved. It makes us hear a concept that can't be spelt out. It's a bit like the perceptive casting of Parambrata Chattopadhyay, again, as a #NotAllMen character. For the third time, the soft-faced Bengali actor has been cast as a noble man in a sea of monsters – the outsider in sync with misfitted protagonists – in a Bengal-based Hindi film. The reel-real duality works, especially within the spatial surrealism of Bulbbul , where his plain doctor-attire is at odds with an environment of silk sarees and crisp waistcoats. 

But perhaps the biggest story lies in the film's use of the "Laila-Majnu couple". Avinash Tiwary plays a boy on the verge of toxic manhood. There's an ethereal otherness about Tripti Dimri, who plays two versions, and whose face becomes the human incarnation of violin strings. By reuniting them, Bulbbul weaponizes our perception of two actors who made a name for themselves by performing unrequited love through a male gaze. If their previous film pivoted on the aftermath of Majnu, this one fetishizes the future of Laila. That storytelling lies at the core of Bulbbul is in line with the fact that the definitive feminist thriller of modern Hindi cinema is named Kahaani . 

In a way, the literary roots of such movies suggest that – while male heartbreak can be immortalized by madness – female heartache is storified by sadness. It's not enough for the girl to cry and scream in a courtyard. She must change a story rather than become one; she must make history rather than shape it. But maybe it's enough that, in bygone eras and otherworldly Indias, she doesn't need to be rescued anymore.

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Bulbbul Movie Review

Bulbbul Devesh Sharma , Jun 24, 2020, 15:51 IST

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