Bhool Chuk Maaf

Nobody is above being typecast, not even Shah Rukh Khan. But while the Badshah of Bollywood has broken hearts and weakened knees with his culture-defining romance movies, Rajkummar Rao has become the patron saint of losers. Far too many times in the last decade, the once-promising star has played versions of the same person: a small town layabout whose overwhelming uselessness is inexplicably presented as innocent charm. The secret behind these characters’ appeal is never revealed, nor does Rao play them as particularly irresistible. In fact, in most of these movies, not only are the protagonists indistinguishable from each other, they’re positively repulsive. Even Rao would’ve struggled to bring freshness to his performance in Bhool Chuk Maaf, the latest in this long line of films.

Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao) and Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi) want to get married. Time won’t allow them to. Funnily, it’s running time which the makers struggle to move along in this comedy about Ranjan’s tryst with time to reach his final destination. The plot is the least of problems for Bhool Chuk Maaf. In fact it’s the only ingenious bit in the film. It’s the characterisation of the lead hero, Ranjan, which makes this a hard pill to swallow. If one is to root for this guy’s predicament, one’s unable to because on paper there’s not much appealing about him. His ambition is simple: get a government job so as to marry his sweetheart; the means to go about it are questionable and ultimately off-putting. It makes Titli’s penchant for him all the more puzzling. Love does have mysterious ways, but surely idiocy isn’t one.

Before breaking out with horror comedies, Maddock Films’ slate consisted largely of social comedies. The production house not just bankrolled them but, through reiteration, set a template where unusual premise offset the familiarity of the messaging. In Bala (2019), social prejudice was addressed through the inventive set-up of an insecure man losing his hair; in Mimi (2020), the complexity of motherhood was conveyed through surrogacy. Bhool Chuk Maaf, their latest film, uses similar embellishment, but the dressing is hollow and the tone is patronising. It is difficult to see through the facade, at least on the surface. Karan Sharma’s film begins on a playful note. Ranjan Tiwari (Rajkummar Rao) and Titli Mishra (Wamiqa Gabbi) want to get married. They have been in love for long, but their parents, mainly hers, are not ready to accept the union. Reasons are plenty, but Titli’s father (the inimitable Zakir Hussain wasted in a one-note role) wants the groom to have a government job. This wouldn’t have posed a problem if Ranjan were a capable man.

What comprises a good deed? Is it as simple as feeding the cows, or even the poor, or lighting diyas around sacred trees? Of course, before we come to the heart of the film, it begins on a light-hearted note, even beats around the bush, and only then arrives at what it intends to convey. Love birds Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao) and Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi) have eloped. Only before they actually run away, Titli decides to flit back. They return home. No, hell doesn’t break loose. Parents, even in Varanasi, are not that unreasonable. Only the girl’s father puts in a caveat, “Find a government job within two months if you want to marry my daughter”. And you get the crux of the storyline. In the hero ‘buying’ a government job and finding his way to ‘happily ever after’ lies the rest of the drama.

Even as Sanjay Mishra delivers a climactic speech at his customary 20 km/hr, a third of Delhi’s film journalists are slouching in the cinema aisles, physically present, spiritually done. I’m seated, but only just, eyeing the nearest exit, thinking of dinner options and career choices. We’ve been ground down by Bhool Chuk Maaf, a film about purgatory that feels like purgatory. Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao) and Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi) are desperate to get married. Her father (Zakir Hussain), though, won’t allow them to until unemployed, directionless Ranjan finds a job, any job (very anti-national of the film to suggest there’s a job crisis driving young men to suicide). This sets up a dreary first 40 minutes, as Ranjan tries to bribe his way to a government job and Titli complains and scolds him (why isn’t she looking for a job?). Finally, a fixer named Bhagwan (Mishra) comes through, Ranjan is employed, and a date is set.