Bhool Chuk Maaf review: Rajkummar Rao in time loop of misogyny and lopsided love

India Today

23-05-2025

A time loop, lots of confusion, a story of faith, a love angle, and the signature small-town humour of Rajkummar Rao - 'Bhool Chuk Maaf' has got everything right on paper. But, nothing seems executed well. The film's idea of a love story is too lopsided and its humour, too crass, for an audience that now has access to world cinema. In 'Bhool Chuk Maaf', neither the time loop nor the love story seems wisely planned. Both are riddled with tons of loopholes and glaring inconsistencies that make it difficult to stay engaged. Oh! And moving on is another problem - because how can we, when the story itself refuses to?advertisementIt takes over one hour for the film to establish its central conflict, something that the trailer and other promos had already revealed to the audience. Rao's Ranjan Tiwari and Wamiqa Gabbi's Titli are in love and want to get married, despite their families' disapproval. Yet, Titli is never seen appreciating Ranjan or expressing deep love for him, but more on that later. Her father presents a condition: get a government job in two months, or forget about the marriage. The quest begins. Even after trying for several years, Ranjan hasn't managed to land any government job. He chooses an easier way: bribing someone to get the job done. And when that too becomes a dead-end, he turns to faith, vowing at a Shiva temple to perform a nek kaam (noble deed) if his wish is fulfilled.advertisementThings begin to fall into place, and he gets the job, only to find himself stuck in a loop, a day before his wedding. Ranjan must find a way to break the loop, or he will never wake up to his wedding day with Titli.
The time loop is a fresh and intriguing concept for the Indian audience. Setting the story in Varanasi, the land of Lord Shiva, is another brilliant step that adds colours and thematic depth to the story. However, neither the setting nor the concept alone can salvage a film that drags endlessly. One glaring issue with 'Bhool Chuk Maaf' is Gabbi's over-the-top performance. She is like a loud child in a candy store, confused and constantly complaining. The complete lack of chemistry between Titli and Ranjan is another.The kind of love that traps you in time must be deep, passionate, and compelling - rich with emotion, conflict, and depth. It should make you root for the lovers. In 'Bhool Chuk Maaf', you end up feeling nothing for the two lovers. There's no connection, no compatibility, no spark. Their bickering and tiffs are neither cute nor revealing, and their problems don't invite any empathy. In fact, at some point, you wonder whether the girl really needs to be moving heaven and earth to be with this man.advertisement An independent girl from Varanasi - educated, self-aware, and from a respectable family - is ready to sell her mother's jewellery for a man who brings nothing to the table. Her only ambition, we are told, is to marry him. This is both outdated and damaging. It reduces a small-town girl's life to a singular goal: securing a marriage with an unemployed lover, as though that's the highest aspiration she can have. It sets the wrong standard and reinforces a harmful narrative — that love, no matter how unequal or undeserving, is the only meaningful pursuit for women like her. Whatever happens to women dreaming bigger - of careers, of independence, of making their own choices!Rao brings sincerity and impeccable comic timing to his character. You do feel for this man who is waking up every day to do the same thing. But you are not convinced of his innocence and his righteousness. The faults are not in Rao's performance, because that is stellar and the only thing that keeps the film afloat, but in the poor writing and direction that feel disjointed and undercooked. 'Bhool Chuk Maaf' looks like a pretty package filled with hollow emotions and a love story that never truly breathes.advertisementIt is also misogynistic in parts. A line trivialising pregnancy - "Duniya ka sabse easy kaam hai bacha paida karna, aur usme bhi 9 mahine lag ate hain (Birthing a baby is the easiest job in the world, but even that takes nine months) - is repeated many times in the first half. A man is ridiculed because his wife supports the household through a small pickle business. All of it doesn't just make the story look tone-deaf, but also reveals its deeper gender biases.Directed by Karan Sharma, 'Bhool Chuk Maaf' is an idea with potential, but one that needs more introspection. Time may loop, love may falter, and faith may be tested — but cinema must evolve. Because audiences aren't stuck in yesterday!
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