Bulbbul


Bulbbul is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language film, written and directed by Anvita Dutt. Produced by Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Sharma, the film stars Tripti Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, Paoli Dam, Rahul Bose and Parambrata Chattopadhyay. Bulbbul set in a backdrop of 1880's Bengal presidency, revolves around a child-bride & her journey from innocence to strength. Bulbbul was released on Netflix on 24 June 2020.

Plot

Bulbbul is married to Indranil, the Bado Thakur, when she is barely five years old. She initially assumes that she is marrying Satya, Thakur's brother, who is closer to her age. Bulbbul and Satya spend all their time together telling each other stories of witchcraft.
Twenty years later, Satya returns back. It is revealed that in the interim, Indranil's identical twin brother Mahendra was killed in what is believed to be a witch's attack, Mahendra's widow Binodini lives in an outhouse, Indranil has left the village and Bulbbul has taken over his responsibilities. The village doctor, Sudip, regularly visits to check on Bulbbul's feet. While on a hunt, one of the men is killed, which is attributed to the witch. Satya, however, concludes that it was a human who is behind the murders and begins to suspect Sudip.
Through the course of flashbacks it is revealed that Binodini had indicated to Indranil that Bulbbul was attracted to Satya. In response, Indranil sent Satya to London. Bulbbul and Satya had been working towards writing a story, the manuscript of which Satya hands over to Bulbbul before leaving for London. Grieved by his absence Bulbbul throws the manuscript into the house furnace. Upon checking a few snippets from the last of the few remaining burning pages from the fireplace, Indranil is convinced about the attraction that Bulbbul has towards Satya and punished Bulbbul, mutilating her feet. While bedridden, Mahendra rapes her. Bulbbul is extremely mentally disturbed as a result and there is a symbolic transformation. Bulbbul is then revealed to be the chudail with reversed feet who kills the men of the village when they abuse their wives.
Satya escorts Sudip to Calcutta on the charges of being the murderer. While on the way, the driver of the carriage is killed by the chudail, leading Satya to believe that Sudip is innocent. However, Satya shoots the chudail and intending to kill her, first mortally wounds her and then lights the forest on fire. He realises that Bulbbul is the chudail only when Sudip shouts for her.
Later, Indranil returns to an empty house, after Satya's departure. He is awoken from his sleep by Bulbbul, who emerges from embers and supposedly killing Indranil as well to take revenge.

Cast

The story was written by Anvita Dutt, who has been a commissioned writer for films. She wrote the first two pages of the story after awaking from her sleep one night and outlined the chudail and the myth and idea behind her in this first draft. She completed the rest of the story after returning from a trip from Kolkata, after seeing a bulbul make a nest outside her house and after some encouragement from her colleagues. She intended the story to resemble a fairy tale and set it in the neoclassical era of Bengal to fulfill that. She was also inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's portrayal of women; Binodini is the name of one of the characters in his work. The premise has similarites with Tagore's novella Nastanirh, which was adapted by Satyajit Ray as the 1964 film Charulata. Dutt describes, "Now in reality what happens to women is much worse. The emotional, the physical and the psychological abuse is much, much worse. In telling of the story, I chose to tell it this way. I wanted the cold rage of women to find an outlet... It's a tragedy. The story is set 200 years ago but it's still relevant."
The film was shot over a period of thirty-three days in locations near Kolkata and Mumbai. Siddharth Diwan led the cinematography. With inputs from Dutt, the artwork of Raja Ravi Varma and Caravaggio were used as inspiration, in addition to influences from Expressionism and Surrealism. Diwan also took inspiration from photographers like Man Ray and Raja Deen Dayal. Satyajit Ray's poster of the film Devi was an inspiration for the lighting. Some examples of symbolism used include the grass, kaash phool, the bird and flower motifs, all significant to the goddess Durga. The mansion used in the film is Bawali Rajbari, located from Kolkata in the village of Nodakhali. The mansion has previously featured in the film Chokher Bali by Rituparno Ghosh.

Themes

Set in the late 19th century in Bengal, the film delves into the idea of aristocratic Bengali women embracing Western ideologies of freedom. Aruna Chakravarti's Jorasanko described Tagore's relationship with his child-bride sister-in-law, Kadambari, which Shreya Paul of Firstpost noted as the foundation behind the relationship between Bulbbul and Satya. Chakravarti described how Kadambari was devastated when she was separated from Tagore. Further, Tagore's older brother, Birendranath, suffered from a mental illness but was still married off and abused his wife, similar to Binodini being married off to Mahender.
Aditya Mani Jha of Firstpost noted that the film is "a postmodern example of the Gothic genre", the most common example of which is Bram Stoker's Dracula. Satya is similar to Jonathan Harker, the protagonist of Dracula, in that they have the same "cold, unemotional logic" that leads them to investigate the case and eventually decide to kill the monster themselves. The supernatural element embodying repressed emotions or desires is a trope of the Gothic genre. Bulbbul's reveal as the chudail frames her like a goddess, specifically like Kali. Binodini subtly planting the idea of Bulbbul and Satya in Indranil's head makes her like Iago.

Reception

Bulbbul opened up to generally positive reception from the critics and the audience with a particular praise for its stand on feminism, visual effects, background music, and performance of the leads, especially Tripti Dimri. However, it was criticized for short length and predictable plot.
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express stated: "Bulbbul is very much its own film, the mix of classic pre-Renaissance Bengal and desi horror gothic making for gripping viewing... It is a powerfully feminist, revisionist tale of a woman wronged, and it is told with economy, precision and feeling...Dutt uses the ancient trope of a bloodthirsty 'chudail with ultey pair', a familiar creature tale in our scary 'kisse-kahaani', to create dread and fear. The writing is skilful and stays on point, and the performances are all solid."
Namrata Joshi of The Hindu applauded the rebellious idea of Dutt and stated: "Anvita Dutt mixes the feudal with the supernatural, the spooky, the mythological and the fablesque in a thoughtful, moving and engaging manner....She mixes the feudal with the supernatural and the spooky, the mythological and the fablesque to strike at the putrid core of patriarchy in a thoughtful, moving, engaging and powerful manner."
Shubhram Kulkarni of Koimoi gave it 3.5 stars and stated "As much as I am in love with Anvita Dutt as the writer, her direction is point one below. As observed, while the script tries to keep the big reveal hidden, the direction and dialogue make it predictable. Thus making the climax less hitting."
Stutee Ghosh of The Quint gave it 3 stars and mentioned "One of the questions that the film throws up and doesn't answer is if the binary between being a devi or a chudail is the only recourse that feminine power has to navigate in this patriarchal set up."
Kritika Vaid of India.com mentioned the universally positive reaction of the audience in social media. Veteran Director Anurag Kashyap tweeted and called the film one of the best he had seen in this millennium and also praised the performance by the lead actors and Anvita Dutt.
Sameer Sulunkhe of Cineblitz rated it as 2.5 stars and observed "The film is a celebration of colors – red hues symbolizing anger, celebration, menstruation and above all womanhood, stark blue representing the grim past. Adding to this visual spectacle is Amit Trivedi’s hauntingly beautiful score, dominated by violin. It’s a great combination of audio-visual storytelling. What hurts Bulbbul is its writing. Writer-director Anvita Dutt has tremendous command over the language, and the dialogues have a literary touch, but the overall narrative lacks novelty and doesn’t have much impact either. "