Lockdown mein sab kuch badal gaya hai.
Baahar jaana, khaana, shaadi biyaah,
the concept of time as we know it.
And I, have started to watch scary films.
But at like 7:30 AM,
kyunki daring abhi thodi hi aayi hai.
Hey guys, my name is Sucharita.
This is Film Companion,
you're watching Not A Movie Review
and right now,
I’m not going to be reviewing Bulbbul.
Set in Bengal, in the year 1881 and within
20 years after that, Bulbbul is the story of...
Wait!
Oh my God!
Women telling women's stories.
Ugh, it's been so long!
So, directed and written by Anvita Dutt,
Bulbbul is a story of a young girl named Bulbbul,
married as a child, to a man 
at least 30 years older than her.
You follow her into
this new life as tiny “badi bahu",
watch her come of age, learn of the world,
and come face to face with the evil residing in it.
In the mix is young Satya, the bade thakur’s
much younger brother, closer in age to Bulbbul,
who becomes her friend, her confidant, until
he’s sent away to London for higher studies.
Bulbbul, now alone, and rapidly approaching adulthood,
is on her own, and must figure out ways to survive.
Jaisa trailer mein bhali bhaanti
pata chal gaya tha dekhkar,
yeh film heavily inspired toh hai hi
Hindi mythological kahaaniyon se,
par woh inspiration sirf
story tak seemit nahi hai.
Cinematographer Siddharth Diwan,
jinka stellar kaam
aapne Trapped, Bhavesh Joshi etc.
filmon mein dekha hai,
frames almost each shot
like an old timey painting.
Growing up, my mother had a copy of Raja Ravi Varma’s
famous Nal Damayanti hung up in the living room -
a woman longingly looking at a swan,
who may or may not be her husband...
I know very little about art.
But I do know that
everywhere you look in Bulbbul,
Siddharth Diwan has tried to replicate a similar
aesthetic, without making it look dated.
Yes, the sets are all
very elaborately, well, set,
for which production designer Meenal Agarwal
deserves all the credit.
But, there’s also extremely DEFT
camerawork at display.
In one particularly haunting shot, and I don’t mean that
literally, a character has been brutally assaulted.
She cannot walk
because her feet are bleeding,
so she’s crying and kinda dragging
herself on the floor, to reach her room.
The camera is on the floor at eye level,
so we’re not looking down
and feeling bad about her pain and misery,
but instead, we're living it with her.
We're looking into her eyes.
The frame is mostly static,
and as soon as she reaches the lens,
the camera immediately pulls back, revealing
another couple of feet she has to now crawl,
and so it goes on.
Like in a nightmare, when you’re running and running
and running and still stuck at the same spot.
And that’s what Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul
also ultimately is talking about.
Less about actual horror stories, but more about the
horrific realities which give birth to these stories.
Life is a nightmare.
Thodi research karne ke liye niklo, toh
chudails ke baare mein itna kuch hai online,
to read, to study and just be amazed by.
Stuff of folklore,
fairy tales, cautionary tales,
ki andhere ke baad ghar se baahar
kyun nahi jaana chahiye etc etc.
Toh Bulbbul is a uniquely Indian tale
in that regard.
When you finally see what the
chudail in the film is wearing,
you’ll notice that she’s been dressed by
costume designer Veera Kapur Ee exactly like this.
A dakini, who in some stories
are women who come back to life,
under the protection of Kali,
after being murdered on their wedding night,
to avenge themselves, and other women.
This is the folklore.
You might spot more symbolism.
Bulbbul’s peacock feather hand fan,
a doomsday triggering,
color changing moon,
a forest alive like an actual person,
and of course
“qaid mein hai bulbbul”.
But you’ll also observe,
there are various ways in which life
is still the same for many women,
across the country
and the film is saying that to you.
Anvita Dutt’s film speaks of
the need for a sisterhood,
and it makes it a point to show you why,
via many microaggressions.
A man returns after 5 years and immediately
assumes charge of financial affairs,
while asking women to cover their heads,
judging them for talking to another bloke.
And of course, mera personal favourite, standing up for
all the men ever, popularly known as the ‘bro code’.
You're meant to notice these moments, carefully crafted
into this patiently written, non-linear screenplay.
Achcha, aur iss
non-linearity se kya hota hai?
Story mein suspense generate hota hai.
Agar theek se karo, toh.
When straight up,
in the beginning of the film,
you’re shown that the inner journey
of the lead character is complete,
and the rest of the film is about
finding out how, filling in the gaps,
trying to figure what could have potentially
lead to the current situation,
one gets invested in wanting to find out.
Acting coach Atul Mongia works hard and
successfully with the leading actor Tripti Dimri.
Bulbbul affords her the space to move around,
which her debut film Laila Majnu did not.
It’s a challenging part and she delivers
a confident and a mature performance,
especially while playing
the teenaged Bulbbul,
and she carries a majority of the film
on her shoulders, without a slip-up.
Avinash Tiwary is a proven stellar actor,
and here as well, as Satya Thakur,
he’s clay in his director’s hands.
In him lies the story’s hope,
not as a saviour,
but as an acknowledger of systemic privilege
and harbinger of systemic change.
An incredible Rahul Bose plays Thakur with as much
ease and perfection with which he transforms into,
well anything, I’ve seen him in.
I won’t go into too much detail into his role,
kyunki yeh ek neat little surprise hai,
joh halaanki film ki starting mein dikh jaayega,
par it's fun to find out.
Paoli Dam is just excellent as a product
of her circumstances, chhoti Bahu Binodini.
There’s a really wonderful scene
between her and Bulbbul,
where she’s dressing her up,
like she would a doll,
but also just pouring out her grief,
and deep-seated hurt,
by regurgitating lines which were probably
taught to her as a little girl.
The scene starts off
as an admonishment,
but by the end of it,
your heart is aching for this woman
who has had to do all kinds of things
to be able to survive.
Bulbbul delivers what it promises.
A scary story of a child’s imagination
come to life in late 19th century India,
told via comprehensive filmmaking,
aimed towards bringing you entertainment.
It is not a tough film to decipher, understand,
and its themes are easy to grasp,
jo agar miss ho bhi jaayein,
toh kaafi simplistic climax mein,
sab sundar se aise tie together bhi ho jaayega.
Kind of like a ‘Tumbbad Light’, perhaps?
But, Clean Slate Films seem to have put
their entire might behind finding
fun, new stories and storytellers,
and giving them the resources
and treatment their ideas deserve.
I laud the effort, and I hope Netflix is able to
generate enough good buzz around this film,
so that it reaches maximum people.
So, on a scale of 1 to 10,
Bulbbul is...
1 hour 34 minutes only,
which is a huge blessing,
because right now,
attention span is just...
