What we have here is a fever-dreamscape quasi-giallo movie, which transforms the pulp premise of a female vigilante into something very human and emotional and deeply mysterious.
Spoilers ahead…
Bulbbul is produced by Anushka Sharma’s production outfit (she runs it with her brother), and it shares a few similarities with another film from this company: Pari. Both titles refer to winged creatures: one’s a bird, the other an angel. And both times, these wings are clipped: either literally or metaphorically, the female protagonists end up chained. Both stories are set in Bengal: Pari in present-day Kolkata, Bulbbul in the Bengal Presidency in the latter part of the 19th century. Both films weave in horror elements, but neither is a “horror movie”. They are instead, curious marriages of wildness and domesticity, the real and the supernatural, the feral and the feminine. Very early on in Bulbbul, the word “khoon” (blood) — uttered by a male — is juxtaposed over the image of a child bride leaving bright-red footprints with the alta painted on her soles. Ask me if there’s a loose thesis statement in the film, and I’ll propose this: A witch is a woman, too.
Read the rest of this article here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/bollywood-review/bulbbul-review-netflix-bollywood-tripti-dimri-avinash-tiwary-a-spoiler-filled-look-at-this-eerie-drama-that-says-witches-are-women-too-baradwaj-rangan-anvita-dutt/
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Jai
July 12, 2020
Very well written review BR.
I just loved the film, to the extent that we saw it twice in a span of 4 days! Very beautifully executed and the performances were superb. A pleasure to watch.
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tonks
July 12, 2020
The initial parts reminded me of Charulata : older serious husband, younger attractive male companion to whom the beautiful young wife is drawn to. And the husband realises the extent of his wife’s infatuation only when the young man goes away. All set in a Raj period upper class Bengali background.
The rest of it of course, is all different. There’s something so classy about Bengali stories especially those set in this era.
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Satya
July 12, 2020
The whole conceit of the film reminds me of another Sherlock adventure: The Abominable Bride. Feel free to disagree though.
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Jai
July 12, 2020
@Tonks, yeah there were some small elements of similarity to Charulata….with the Tagore novella The Broken Nest/Nastanirh in fact, which was the source material for Charulata.
I read somewhere that the reason for setting the latter period of the film in1901, was a tip of the hat of sorts to Tagore (who first published this novella in that year).
The only (very minor) quibble I had with the film was the stages (as in number of years from the start) didn’t quite add up. When we first see Bulbbul, she’s about 6 years old or so (1881). The film’s denouement happens for the most part in 1901, and we are told that Satya left for London 5 years before that (so 1896).
But the films scenes of that “in between stage”- 1896- prior to Satya’s departure, imply that Bulbull is somewhere in her mid to late teens. It’s not stated outright, more so the way both Bulbull and Satya are portrayed, and the way the other characters speak to and of them.
There is therefore a gap of 5 years there somewhere which doesn’t quite add up. 😁 Since Bulbull was around 6 in 1881, she would have to be 21 in 1896, but the film’s scenes set then, imply her to be definitely younger.
Nit picking, I know. 😁 This is what happens when one watches a film twice within such a short gap. I guess, the tip of the hat to Tagore was what determined the start and end stages- 1901 I’ve mentioned above, and 1881, the year he published his first book of poetry, as I recall.
But this is really a very minor quibble , and I loved the movie. Tripti Dimri was just fantastic and the others were great too.
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சினிமா ரசிகன்
July 12, 2020
It’s a good movie
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Tridib
July 12, 2020
@Jai Yes indeed, besides Nastanirh/Charulata there also seemed to be hat-tips to Chokher Bali, both thematically as well as in the names of the Binodini and Mahendra characters. Nastanirh (The Broken Nest) itself was said to be inspired by Tagore’s relationship with his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi.
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Prasad
July 12, 2020
Good review. Bulbul is some of the top movies of this year.
On a different topic, please Enjoy Cute Romcom picks of last decade-Amazon/Netflix.Please Enjoy and subscribe.
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Anu Warrier
July 13, 2020
@Jai – 1881 t0 1896 is 15 years, no? Not 21?
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Sneh
July 13, 2020
Great review as always.
Would love for you to review some of the recent series that came out (Paatal Lok, Breathe: Into the Shadows) too.
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Jai
July 13, 2020
@ Anu- no, I mean Bulbbul’s age as is shown about 1896. Let me explain again:
In 1881, she is shown to be a young kid. Probably 6 at an estimate (say 6 to 8 years as a range).
15 years later (in 1896), she would be 21 at the youngest (21 to 23 as a range).
But at that stage of the film, she is quite evidently shown as much younger. Possibly 16 or 17. (So is Satya). That’s why I said, that the timeline doesn’t quite add up.
But again, this is a very minor quibble. I loved the film as a whole.
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Jai
July 13, 2020
@ Anu- another pointer as to the timeline lapse. In 1896, Satya, aged about 18 or thereabouts, goes to London to study. His age is implied from the way he (and Bulbbul) are portrayed then, the way the other characters talk to and about them, and of course the fact of his being sent for studies there (Tagore, Gandhiji and Nehru were all around that age when they left for London).
Which means, in 1881, he would have been a child of 3 (with Bulbbul still younger). That’s not how the film opens. Ergo, somewhere there is a roughly 5 year abberation in the timeline.
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brangan
July 13, 2020
In Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul, echoes from stories surrounding Rabindranath Tagore’s family home Jorasanko
https://www.firstpost.com/art-and-culture/in-anvita-dutts-bulbbul-echoes-from-stories-surrounding-rabindranath-tagores-family-home-jorasanko-8577741.html
Very interesting piece. Though for those of us not THAT much into Tagorean lore, all I found was some visual similarity with films made from Tagore’s stories.
Jai, are you saying that the wife attracted to the brother-in-law is similar to CHARULATA? But this is not really a romantic attraction, no? More like he’s the only age-appropriate companion she has…
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Jai
July 13, 2020
@ BR- yeah, it’s not an exact similarity, more of an allusion/ parallel, if you will. In The Broken Nest, Charu clearly develops romantic feelings for Amal (younger cousin of her much-older husband Bhupati). In the film, it’s a bit more layered- Bulbbul and Satya are playmates from a young age, confidantes, and I guess he becomes the only same-age-group support system she has. The romantic attraction is muted- though I wouldn’t say it’s entirely absent – but yes, the film stresses more on the companionship part of it.
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Anu Warrier
July 13, 2020
@Jai – oh, okay. 🙂 Put it down to my brain not working. Loved the film though, and this didn’t even ping on my consciousness.
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nikkie1602
July 14, 2020
I have a question…
What was the deal with Mahendra? The entire sequence with him and Bulbul…and then him returning to his room and Binodini saying something to him and him cringing as if in fear… Is he actually developmentally challenged? Did he do it on orders of Binodini? There’s so much ambiguity there. ( God I hate even writing this) There is this sudden change in Mahendra’s expression…he comes in and is his usual self, the gudiya and all bit…and then mid all that creepy play there is just a second, his expression changes and he goes on to rape her…I for a second thought maybe it is the Bada Thakur play acting but then that doesn’t make any sense….
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Nimmi Rangaswamy
July 14, 2020
nikkie1602- that’s an interesting proposition about Binodini’s hand in that horrible event- the jealousy perhaps and the pent up stuff from all those years in marriage etc… her relationship with the elder brother is also a humiliating one- he chides her for calling Bulbul Choti Takurayan/bahu. Mahendra’s behavior in the scene is very specific and some time is spent on developing it until he reaches his room… the change of expression just before the rape could mean several things…
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brangan
July 14, 2020
Here’s a bit from a comment on the FC site:
This line from your blog, “I wish the framework-narrative had been worked out better, but when I thought back about the film, I found myself increasingly thankful that the “gaps” hadn’t been filled in.” aptly describes my thoughts as well.
A friend of mine had brought this up and felt it was one of the downsides, but I disagree, the “gaps” added so many shades of mystery to the characters and to the haveli as well. In reference, Binodini’s dialogue, “Bade havelion mein bade raaz hote hain” fits this air of mystery perfectly.
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Devarsi Ghosh
July 14, 2020
I don’t know how my comment will be received (dumb, or, wait-he-may-have-something-there), but Dutt’s screenplay reminded me of the best 70s scripts of Salim-Javed, in so far as how both Dutt and Salim-Javed consumed a hell lot of literature, folklore, and cinema, and in the end product, disparate influences flew in from here and there, sometimes consciously and sometimes not, to give us this final story which was unique in its own weird way, despite its literary and cinematic roots.
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Devarsi Ghosh
July 14, 2020
PS: Dutt has claimed to be an “avid reader”-type in several interviews, including one with me, and she was indeed deliberately channeling a lot of stuff (Tagore, Victorian Gothic, Indian folklore) together through Bulbbul. I am personally very eager to see what she does next.
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Vanya
July 14, 2020
I’m one of those for whom the gaps didn’t work and would have liked to know more about who these people were, especially Bulbbul. But props to Tripti Dimri and Parambrata Chatterjee for fleshing out their underwritten characters.
One issue that lingered in my mind for a while after viewing was Mahendra’s storyline. He’s portrayed as having fairly severe intellectual disabilities, so is it fair to hold him to the same standards as the other transgressors? What happened to not guilty by reason of mental defect? And the potential reasoning I landed on finally was that Mahendra is supposed to be a stand-in for boys in our culture. While he’s subject to desires like everyone else, he clearly did not or could not register Bulbbul’s pain and distress, as though he’d been conditioned for years that those two things did not count in women. Perhaps he had even witnessed similar scenes playing out in his own home and was simply reenacting them. But, to be honest, this was a dissatisfying explanation, and left me uncomfortable.
One final comment, I wish the writer/director had had enough faith in her story-telling to not throw in expositional flashbacks at the end, especially for events that had taken place literally 2 minutes before! Just finished Sufiyum Sujatayum, and had a similarly exasperating experience with flashbacks there. Gah!
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