Thamma

The MHCU (Maddock Horror Comedy Universe) has gained much success for blending horror with comedy, delivering one superhit after another in the genre it almost reinvented with ‘Stree’. As yet another much-awaited outing of the indigenous franchise hit the screens, expectations were sky high. Not only does ‘Thamma’ come from the production house which lately can boast of hitting the bull’s eye each time, it also has an unusual pair worth rooting for.

The Maddock Horror Comedy Universe (MHCU) had to stumble sooner or later. With Thamma, the universe—with its creatures and legends—has got its first weakling. This is a surprise because the creative brains of MHCU are the same. There’s chief writer Niren Bhatt, in Thamma teaming up with Suresh Mathew and Arun Falara; Aditya Sarpotdar of Munjya fame in the director’s chair; and Dinesh Vijan and Amar Kaushik (the latter is director of both Stree films and Bhediya) as producers, alongside Sachin-Jigar as composers. But this time around, the combo of scares and laughs struggles to register.

Aditya Sarpotdar’s Thamma is a nothing film. It is so vacuous that had the review ended with one line, the remaining blank space could have passed off as method writing. It is so empty-coded that candy floss, in comparison, would be more weighted. It is so ineffective that the cautionary tobacco advertisements attached to theatrical releases prove to be more potent. And, it is so vacant that if the film were a piece of land, it would make for a lucrative real estate deal. My thoughts are getting garbled here, but then thinking about Thamma should not be a full-time job, yet here we are.

At a time when taking umbrage is a national pastime, horror comedy is an imaginative form of creating an entertaining social commentary. With Stree and Bhediya, Maddock Films gave the genre a new life and carried the mood and message forward with Munjya. However, this meeting of natural and supernatural almost hits a dead end this week as the banner seems to be ‘marvelling’ at sustaining a desi multiverse rather than telling a compelling story. Inspired by blood sucking vampires from Hindu mythology, Munjya director Aditya Sarpotdar and his troika of writers have created a fascinating world based on the co-existence between humans and betaals and how the self-seeking creatures in both species are destroying this balance. However, both the text and the subtext remain undercooked, and what we get tastes like an adulterated Deepavali delicacy.

The Maddock supernatural universe is growing at a pace that surpasses the Big Bang. The achievements of Stree, Bhediya, and Munjya have led to the introduction of a new character, Thamma. This film, directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, who previously delivered the sleeper hit Munjya last year, presents fairly conventional content and storytelling.

छपरी किस्म का टी.वी. रिपोर्टर आलोक गोयल जंगल में घूमने जाता है जहां उसके पीछे भालू पड़ जाता है। एक रहस्यमयी लड़की उसे बचाती है। तभी कुछ लोग उसे उठा कर ले जाते हैं और एक बार फिर वही लड़की उसे बचाती है। इन दोनों में प्यार हो जाता है। लेकिन यह लड़की इंसान नहीं, वेताल है। वेताल, यानी चलते-फिरते प्रेत, जो बरसों पहले इंसानी खून पीते थे लेकिन अब इंसानों को बचाने का काम करते हैं। आलोक इस लड़की को लेकर अपने घर दिल्ली आ जाता है तो पीछे-पीछे कुछ वेताल भी आ जाते हैं। वैसे भी अब आलोक इंसान नहीं रहा, वेताल बन चुका है।