‘Bhool Chuk Maaf’ review
“Bhool Chuk Maaf”, featuring Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi, comes at a time when Bollywood has almost forgotten to make romantic comedies. In a world infested with spy-verses and Pan-India south actioners, “Bhool Chuk Maaf” reminds you of the years of Ayushmann-Rajkummar supremacy when these two actors featured in feel-good slice-of-life romantic comedies, delivering pertinent societal messages along the way. That era, somewhere between 2014 and 2018, is sorely missed now. Rajkummar Rao returns to the genre with “Bhool Chuk Maaf”, which has been in the news for its multiple shifts in release dates in the past month. In filmmaker Karan Sharma’s “Bhool Chuk Maaf”, Rao returns as the everyday man who lives in a small town and has limited ambition- that to secure a government job in order to marry his love Titli. Set in Banaras, the film takes a simplistic approach to love, redemption and more, even as the lead character gets stuck in a time loop. And while “Bhool Chuk Maaf” has ingredients of a feel-good romcom in place, the film falters in one too many places.
Ranjan Tiwari wants to get married to the love of his life, Titli. While Titli is a brat who knows her way around her strict father (Zakir Hussain), Ranjan is an ambitionless man, never having worked a day to survive. His future father-in-law is naturally against the alliance but agrees eventually on the condition that he secures a government job within 2 months. Ranjan manages to land a job with the help of some enterprising friends and a supportive girlfriend but gets stuck in a time loop a day before the actual wedding. As Ranjan tried to retrace the day’s happenings and correct his ways, he realizes that securing the job through illegal ways may be the cause of the loop. The film packs in the usual situational comedy with Rao leading the way with his theatrics and physical comedy. In the second half, however, the film takes a serious philosophical turn with Sharma, who also serves as the writer of the film, throwing in a communal angle. In the garb of being a romantic comedy with a message on karma and redemption, it delivers a very myopic view on the society at large.
The time loop too becomes repetitive after a point and one tends to become impatient on where the film is headed and when Ranjan will be able to break the loop.
The climax, too is terribly slow, with an out-of-the-blue monologue thrown in and a very abrupt ending which seem to have been written while the scene was being shot.
“Bhool Chuk Maaf” may have been well-intended on paper, but at the execution level, it falters with a sluggish narrative and a badly written conclusion. The film is middling to say the least and will not stay with you after you walk out of the theatre. (Agencies)
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