‘Bhool Chuk Maaf’ (2025) Movie Review - Karan Sharma’s Superficially Progressive Fantasy Comedy

From the trailer itself, I predicted the reason behind the time loop in Karan Sharma's Bhool Chuk Maaf. What do you know, my prediction turned out to be right! But I don't know if I should pat myself on the back or blame Bollywood for being so predictable. Then again, neither of those things sounds exciting. I hate films that are not challenging, and many people have already made a name for themselves by bashing Bollywood. I guess I should be concerned about Rajkummar Rao. He is entering the Ayushmann Khurrana Message Movie territory with movies like Srikanth, Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video, and Bhool Chuk Maaf. In a recent interview, Anurag Kashyap mentioned that the Hindi film industry has hit rock bottom. Bhool Chuk Maaf is one of the many examples that show the reason behind this decline in both quality and ambition. Its sci-fi concept and social message are only superficially progressive. The movie, with obvious jokes, cheap humor, and a lengthy final lecture, is aesthetically regressive and narratively dull. Sharma records his characters from a distance - he doesn't see them. The people are reduced to cartoons, which would have been fine if the film didn't tackle a weighty subject. Ranjan (Rao) is trapped in a time loop because he, unbeknownst to him, steals someone's government job. That victim is a Muslim, Hamid Ansari (Akash Makhija), and in one of the scenes, he is kidnapped by Ranjan and his friends, Hari (Dheerendra Gautam) and Kishan (Ishtiyak Khan), so that Ranjan can understand Hamid's problem. Basically, three Hindu characters kidnap a Muslim, which in no way seems funny, even though the movie tries to sell it as a funny moment. Perhaps these Bollywood "filmmakers" really live in their own world. They are out of touch with reality, which is why their movies offer ridiculous and simplistic solutions to complex problems. These facile projects are then sold as "films for the mass audience." Translation: Dumb movies by dumb people for dumb audience members.

Rao is incapable of giving a bad performance even when the movie is terrible. This time, however, he has Wamiqa Gabbi with him, and the two actors are so energetic that they infuse some vigor into insipid portions. And yet, these two don't really blend into the small-town setting of this film. They look like outsiders, probably because they exist on a different level. The pitch of their performance is always one note higher than others. It's Raghubir Yadav (as Ranjan's father), Seema Pahwa (as Ranjan's mother), and Pragati Mishra (as Ranjan's sister) who give the film its local flavor. The movie, however, is a waste of everybody's talent. It even wastes its own potential, which comes through Ranjan's internal conflict where he's forced to choose between Titli (Gabbi) and Hamid, between personal sacrifice and personal happiness. Bhool Chuk Maaf suddenly becomes overly dramatic - the emotions are charged. Rao makes sure you feel the weight of his character's burden. Such intense emotions, though, don't seem to belong to a film that hits easy targets. Unsurprisingly, then, the resolution, too, comes across as preachy and shallow. Bhool Chuk Maaf takes the unimaginative route to climax, where a person takes the responsibility for "opening the eyes" of other characters. This duty usually falls into the hands of the hero, but here it's done by a man named Bhagwan Das (Sanjay Mishra), which only makes this already bad climax worse because the moral lecture is delivered by a crook. Sharma doesn't care, though. He has no time for considerations or examinations - he keeps his eyes on box office results.

Take the scene where Ranjan's father asks Ranjan's sister to get something from the kitchen. She tells her father he could have asked Ranjan or his friends to fetch the item. One senses that this daddy dear has a slightly patriarchal mindset, but Sharma treats the character as a comic cipher. What does he think about the family business that's entirely run by Pahwa's character? How profitable is this business? Sharma reduces this businesswoman to a quirk - a taunting remark thrown in the direction of Ranjan's father during an early scene in Bhool Chuk Maaf. The opening credits (they are animated) begin with Titli and take us to the meet-cute moment. But when the movie actually starts, we follow Ranjan. Nonetheless, both perspectives are devoid of a viewpoint. There is no illumination. We learn nothing about Ranjan and Titli's personal or academic history. However, another, more crucial element is missing from here. Why is Titli attracted to a loser like Ranjan? He is neither funny nor charming enough. What does she see in him? Doesn't she have professional goals? What drives this couple towards each other? I initially thought that Ranjan was in this relationship for sex, which is the only reason why a guy like him falls for a girl. But Sharma presents him as a serious lover without providing any basis for this seriousness. In one scene, Ranjan tells Titli that he won't ask her to change her attitude after marriage. A few minutes later, he asks her to change a thing about her. Inside Ranjan, you catch a glimpse of a toxic man who, post-wedding, changes colors. Sharma, expectedly, doesn't dig into this notion. He wants his audience to "have a good time in the theater," and he also wants to "open their eyes" by delivering an important message. Someone should have told Sharma that it's his eyes that need to be opened - he needs to see his script without blinkers. Sharma's fantasy comedy is itself a joke. It wants to introduce good, modern values, but the filmmaking is riddled with outdated tropes. Sharma, at least, apologizes. Bhool Chuk Maaf is not just the name of the film; it's the director's statement.

Final Score- [2.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times