Horror and Feminism in the same Petri dish? Seems like an unlikely pairing at first but this is one experiment a lot of film-makers are trying out in recent times. You would normally associate horror with disturbing violence, faceless antagonists and reckless gore that is typical of slasher films. However, you think deeper and realize that horror can germinate and indeed nourish strong feminist themes because the genre facilitates themes around physical incapacity, primal fears and social taboos.
ASHOK’s FIVE reasons to watch the latest offering from #AnushkaSharma’s #CleanSlateFilms a bold and brilliantly done film #BulBbul, now streaming on #NetflixIndia. This is a connoisseur’s delight combining a women empowerment story set in a mythological background and supported by brilliant casting and acting. Set in the Bengal Presidency of 1881, the film revolves around BulBbul, a little girl who is married off into an aristocratic household to a man, several decades older. She befriends a boy Satya who treats her well and tells us her the story of a “chudail” who resides in the forest and kills people. Satya is in fact the younger brother of the man to whom she has been married off. The story takes a leap to several years later when Satya, now grown up returns to the haveli to discover an oddly detached but self-assured BulBbul. What happened in the interim and how myth merges with reality on a canvas of red and gold is the rest of the story.
1. There is a pattern to Anushka Sharma’s films – NH10 (2015) told the story of a woman rebelling against the system in a horrific tale of retribution, Phillauri (2017) and Pari (2018) which were a romantic comedy and a supernatural respectively with women centric plots and then the web series Pataal Lok which had a distinct political bias. And now #BulBbul where horror and artistic finesse combine to deal a body blow to chauvinistic patriarchy and gender abuse. The dialogues are cleverly written to deliver the underlying messaging: Little BulBbul asks her aunt “ Why do women wear toe rings?”. “So they can be kept under control” the aunt replies. BulBbul innocently persists “What is control?” Or the commentary on male chauvinism “Ek patni ka uske pati ke alawa kya niji ho sakta hai?” asks Thakur Moshai, her husband.
2. #TriptiDimri puts in an outstanding performance as Bulbbul and looks resplendent in the bold red and gold sarees and sindoor. Full marks to #RuchiMahajan who plays the little girl as well. #AvnishTiwari has an uncanny resemblance to #RanvirSingh from certain angles and plays Satya. The rest of the cast include #RahulBose in a dual role and #ParambrataChattopadhyay along with #PaoliDam and all of them pull off brilliant performances.
3. The highlight of the film is the perhaps the technical work. DoP Siddharth Diwan sets up a low-lit, colour-saturated red palette and the special effects are stunning. The one scene where BulBbul is waiting for Satya is done brilliantly and must rate as path-breaking for Indian cinema. I found the camera-work, background score and VFX superb. Amit Trivedi’s music score if the perfect foil for the drama as it unfolds on screen. The one scene where the white moon transforms into a red moon is again metaphorically brilliant and technically perfect.
4. #BulBbul does falter on a couple of points. The lure of the plot and the metaphor dominate the screenplay and as a result the characters of Satya and Doctor Sudeep (Parambrata) are not sketched out enough. Once the plot is set in motion, there are not enough twists and turns which would perhaps count as staple for a horror film. The film also uses the mentally deranged brother Mahendra to carry out the assault on Bulbbul and white the metaphor of a flawed patriarchy is not lost upon the audiences, I am not sure this is a great idea especially in the context of the current debate regarding mental health.
5. The Bengal milieu, setting, aristocratic mansion, look and styling merit full marks. The Tagore influence, especially with character names like Mahendra and Bindoini also stands out. In particular, I felt #PaoliDam in the garb of the widow with shaven head stands out and creates an impact.
Written and directed by #AnvitaDutt, Bulbbul is a signature statement on the untenable hegemony of male patriarchy in the society. Filmmakers do have a responsibility of exposing the atrocities that continue to be meted out to women even today. And #Bulbbul does just that through the metaphor of the chudail. It is symbolic of the tension that build up and is waiting to explode as far as women are concerned. I think #Bulbbul is a must watch for the connoisseur of cinema; it is delightful to note how the metaphor of the chudail is leveraged to communicate that women have had enough, and it is time for a change. The art & production design and the Bengal aristocracy act as perfect foil for the tale. I am going with a 4 on 5 for this metaphorical tale. As anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson once said, “Humanity thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.”
