Thamma Busts the Filmy Genre with Werewolves, Vampires

Movie:Thamma

Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Paresh Rawal, Geeta Agarwal Sharma, Varun Dhawan, Sathyaraj, Nora Fatehi, Malaika Arora.

Direction: Aditya Sarpotdar

Different people laugh at different things; tastes vary, and, in the dark environs of a film theatre, it is a tad easier to shed your inhibitions and laugh loudly, even if it is at a dialogue. I rub it many times, but it does not get ignited. Ghost comedy is a genre, and it has its takers. The maker of this 'Stree' and 'Bhediya' franchise, director Aditya Sarpotdar, inherits a ghost cinematic space, and from there the logic of the orbit is self-explanatory — to each his own, even to those who lap this up as entertainment. There are not only those who had extra time on the festival holidays but also those who cold-shouldered 'Jugnuma' and 'Homebound' in the last few weeks. What ails our cinema? Viewer's tastes, as long as we flock to the theatres and encourage such indulgences as a product of art and commerce? We are the consumers who dictate the market product. In short, "We, The Collective" has been assessed by Aditya Sarpotdar whose filmography largely comprises Marathi films. The canvas gets larger and matches the noise inside and outside the theatres. When one laughs, I wonder if that is sheer, even more preposterous than the film's idea, its brave making and its acceptance at the box office is the clear space created for its sequel — the battle of 'Betal' with 'Bhediya'. Ayn Rand speaks of a passenger: "a shivering little neurotic who wrote cheap plays into which he inserted cowardly little obscenities". 'Thamma' has a screenplay by a threesome. Too many cooks - Niren Bhatt, Arun Floras, and Suresh Matthew. What were these three doing? Sharing one-third of the burden? Alok (Ayushmann Khurrana) loses his way to a forest to be apprehended by a wolf (that earlier attacked Salman Khan). This time, our himbo-in-peril is saved by the dame in stare-and-strike Tadaka (Rashmika Mandanna). What is she doing there, why is she inspired by Kimi Katkar playing Jane Porter are among the many questions you should not be entertaining. Cupid strikes its enthusiastic arrows on Alok (human) and Tadaka (Betal). Who or what is Betal?

To those who do not care too much about 'sapiens' (Yuval Noah Harari), they are carnivorous, bloodthirsty beings in some unknown forest remarkably close to human habitation. Their dietary constitution injuncts them from consuming human blood, which they collectively diagnosed as toxic in 1947 during the Partition. In case logic holds you up for a few seconds, scorn at it and fly like a bat into the cave of the imprisoned Yakshasura (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who has been chained and jailed for having consumed human blood. Alok and Tadaka soon find themselves in Alok's home with his parents - Ram Bajaj Goyal (Paresh Rawal) and Suhana (Geeta Agarwal Sharma). While Sr Goyal smells a paranormal presence, the mom is too happy that her son is back home to observe anything. You are gearing up for a Betal-Aadmi love story when you are told to brace for stunts, fights, and chaos in the Betal-Bhediya (Varun Dhawan) mid-air urban warfare, leading to a fatal (? ) attack on the human being. Time for a breather. And then for the worse. How are Lady Betal (wonder if the English language has evolved to find an appropriate noun) and her semi-corpse fiancé overcome by Betals, bats, Bhediya, two item numbers (Malaika Arora, Poison Babu, and Nora Fatehi, Dilbar Ki Aankhen), plus the Betal police inspector P. K. Yadav (Faisal Malik), is part of the chaotic second half. In the midst of this, you have cameos from Sathyaraj and Abhishek Banerjee. Rashmika Mandanna could be the go-to heroine other than Tripti Dimri, but her performance is too starry. She invariably has a fixed, half-amazed, half-amused look, which she barters for every situation. Ayushmann Khurrana is known for his bold and experimental choices, so don't blame him. He works hard and delivers a sincere effort to salvage the script. One's heart goes out to Nawazuddin. He must have been running for cover after seeing the rushes. From the perspective of performances, while Geeta Agarwal Sharma deserves mention, Paresh Rawal yet again proves how he can overcome a scatterbrained script. He is brilliant. The music (Sachin-Jigar) is worth mentioning. Moving away from Amar Kaushik to Aditya Sarpotdar leaves you guessing if the latter is a poor pun. Given his Marathi background, one wonders if the film is more appropriate to be titled 'Thamba' instead of 'Thamma' - to the guy walking in bravely to watch the film.