Maddock Films and Amazon MGM Studios’ Bhool Chuk Maaf (UA) is a love story with a difference. Ranjan Tiwari (Rajkumar Rao) and Titli (Wamiqa Gabi) live in Varanasi and love one another. But Titli’s father gives Ranjan two months to land a government job if he wants his daughter’s hand in marriage. Unable to get a job, Ranjan seeks the help of middleman Bhagwandas (Sanjay Mishra). On payment of a hefty ‘fee’ to Bhagwandas, Ranjan gets a government job. The wedding date is fixed and pre-wedding celebrations start. But Ranjan realises that he is stuck in a time warp. The date of his marriage is 30th but to his horror, the date on every morning that he wakes up is 29th. He realises that the same pre-marriage functions and preparations are going on every single day which happens to be 29th. After a lot of thinking, he feels, he may not have fulfilled a vow he had made to God, and, therefore, this was God’s way of teaching him a lesson. But things don’t change even after he does everything he can to fulfil his vow. What happens thereafter? Does Ranjan come out of the time warp? Do Ranjan and Titli get married?
The film is inspired by Hollywood film Groundhog Day. Karan Sharma has written the story which is set in a non-metropolitan city. The town settings and characters give a certain freshness to the story. But Karan Sharma’s screenplay, with additional screenplay by Haider Rizvi, is so irritating in the second part that it tests the audience’s patience. The repetitive portions which occur in Ranjan Tiwari’s life get on the viewers’ nerves after a point of time. The haldi ceremony preparations, and the suicide by Hamid Ansari (Akash Makhija) are both repeated so many times that they don’t even remain funny after some time. Of course, there was no other way to emphasise on what is going on in Ranjan’s life, but having said that, it must be mentioned that it is very irritating for the audience. Even the sermon by Bhagwandas in the climax fails to have the desired impact or even half of it! While some comic portions are entertaining, the futility and implausibility of the drama hits the viewers, more so in the post-interval part. Karan Sharma’s dialogues, with additional dialogues by Haider Rizvi, are excellent and have a flavour that’s very heartwarming.
Rajkumar Rao shines as Ranjan Tiwari. He is excellent in the role and makes several of his scenes entertaining, thanks to his brilliant performance. Wamiqa Gabi springs a pleasant surprise by delivering an outstanding performance. She does go overboard in a couple of scenes but her acting overall is superb. As always, Sanjay Mishra does a very fine job (of Bhagwandas’ character). Raghubir Yadav is first-rate as Ranjan’s father. Seema Pahwa leaves a wonderful mark in the role of Ranjan’s mother. Zakir Hussain is lovely as Titli’s father. Anubha Fatehpuria has her moments as Titli’s mother. Himanshu Kohli makes his presence amply felt as Titli’s brother-in-law. Ishtiyak Khan is natural as Kishan mama. Dheerendra Gautam lends fine support as Hari. Jay Thakkar is very realistic as Sushil. Pragati Mishra is nice as Ranjan’s sister, Kairi. Poornima Sharma is alright as Titli’s sister, Sweety. Dhanashree Verma (as Jugni) is okay in a song-dance number. Vineet Kumar creates a good impression as Panditji. Akash Makhija is adequate as Hamid Ansari. Keshav (as Chunne),Saurabh Sharma (as Chunne’s father), Archana Shukla (as Chunne’s mother), Amarjeet Singh (as the decorator), Nalneesh Neel (as the tailor), Sudhakar Mani (as the marriage-fixing Panditji), Prabhat Lehri (as the jeweller), and the others do as needed.
Karan Sharma’s direction is nice but the weak script dilutes the impact of his narration. Tanishk Bagchi’s music is good but the songs are not very popular. Lyrics (Irshad Kamil, Armaan Sharma, Shaan Yadav) are nice. Vijay A. Ganguly’s choreography is decent. Ketan Sodha’s background music is reasonably good but ought to have been better. Sudeep Chatterjee’s cinematography is excellent. Vikram Dahiya’s action and stunt scenes are functional. Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborty’s production designing, and Dilip Rokade’s art direction are of standard. Manish Madan Pradhan’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, Bhool Chuk Maaf has such a terrible second half that it will flop at the ticket windows.
Released on 23-5-’25 at Inox (daily 9 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity: good. Opening: weak. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.
