Bhool Chuk Maaf review: Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi’s film is well intended but stuck in an unnecessary loop

Bhool Chuk Maaf, featuring Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi, comes at a time when Bollywood has almost forgotten to make romantic comedies. In a world infested with spy-verses and Pan-India south actioners, Bhool Chuk Maaf reminds you of the years of Ayushmann-Rajkummar supremacy when these two actors featured in feel-good slice-of-life romantic comedies, delivering pertinent societal messages along the way. That era, somewhere between 2014 and 2018, is sorely missed now. Rajkummar Rao returns to the genre with Bhool Chuk Maaf, which has been in the news for its multiple shifts in release dates in the past month.

In filmmaker Karan Sharma Bhool Chuk Maaf, Rao returns as the everyday man who lives in a small town and has limited ambition- that to secure a govt job in order to marry his love Titli. Set in Banaras, the film takes a simplistic approach to love, redemption and more, even as the lead character gets stuck in a time loop. And while Bhool Chuk Maaf has ingredients of a feel-good romcom in place, the film falters in one too many places.

Plot

Ranjan Tiwari wants to get married to the love of his life, Titli. While Titli is a brat who knows her way around her strict father (Zakir Hussain), Ranjan is an ambitionless man, never having worked a day to survive. His future father-in-law is naturally against the alliance but agrees eventually on the condition that he secures a government job within 2 months. Ranjan manages to land a job with the help of some enterprising friends and a supportive girlfriend but gets stuck in a time loop a day before the actual wedding. As Ranjan tried to retrace the day’s happenings and correct his ways, he realizes that securing the job through illegal ways may be the cause of the loop.

What works

Rao has been sensational in comedy films like Stree, Ludo, and Bareilly Ki Barfi before. Bhool Chuk Maaf has Rao playing the unassuming hero who knows he needs to buckle up to get the girl, yet keeps getting stuck in a loop. Gabbi, pretty and perfect, hams through certain scenes as the loud brat of an affluent family but also has some poignant scenes where she displays restraint. The film also has actors like Seema Pahwa, Raghubir Yadav and Zakir Hussain, and Sanjay Mishra playing parts that they do in films like these, set in North India.

The film packs in the usual situational comedy with Rao leading the way with his theatrics and physical comedy. In the second half, however, the film takes a serious philosophical turn with Sharma, who also serves as the writer of the film, throwing in a communal angle. There, actor Akash Makhija stands out as Hamid- a man who has lost hope in life but acts as an catalyst to change for Ranjan and Titli’s relationship.

The portions featuring Akash and Rao stand out as the two actors deliver a warm, emotional performance.

What does not

In the garb of being a romantic comedy with a message on karma and redemption, it delivers a very myopic view on the society at large. Here, the women are way smarter. Ranjan’s mother is a businesswoman who runs the household, his sister is enterprising and his girlfriend clever, yet the onus of finding a job, saving the relationship falls on Ranjan, the man. The film never delves into why the couple fell in love in the first place. The girl is prettier, well to do and smarter than the boy, who doesn’t even have a job or a purpose in life.

The time loop too becomes repetitive after a point and one tends to become impatient on where the film is headed and when Ranjan will be able to break the loop. The first half, minus a few laughs hear and there, takes ages to establish the plot. The second half, slightly redeemed by the philosophical messaging that comes in, still falters due to the repetitive nature of the narrative.

The climax, too is terribly slow, with an out-of-the-blue monologue thrown in and a very abrupt ending which seem to have been written while the scene was being shot.

Bhool Chuk Maaf may have been well-intended on paper, but at the execution level, it falters with a sluggish narrative and a badly written conclusion. The film is middling to say the least and will not stay with you after you walk out of the theatre.