Bulbbul

Bulbbul is fashioned as a sharply relevant fable. It is a powerfully feminist, revisionist tale of a woman wronged, and it is told with economy, precision, style and feeling.

Dimri is a stunner who speaks volumes with her eyes. And the audience can do little but stay enraptured.

An anti-fairytale at its very core, this feminist fable is arguably the most gorgeous looking thing to have come out of Hindi cinema all year.

This densely layered and visually stunning Bollywood import plays a little like the classic Japanese horror film Audition.

Bulbbul reflects upon this thought as it condemns the culture of silence that women are subjected to. It reminds you what you are truly capable of, once you decide to avenge injustice and seek redemption.

The best any critical Western viewer might offer in praise is "Nice try."

1 of the questions the film throws up&doesn't answer is if the binary between being a devi or chudail is the only recourse feminine power has to navigate in this patriarchal set up. No easy answers in sight but nevertheless a visually appealing film.

Whilst Bulbbul doesn't fulfil the potential we've seen out of the country's genre film scene, it's still a lush and disturbing hybrid of folk-horror and fairytale.

Bulbbul isn't the sort of spine-chilling film that will spook you out of your mind but it is engaging enough not to ever let you off the hook.

Though Dutt erases the misogynistic and patriarchal overtones of [the] chudail [folklore for] a feminist spin, ... she doesn't add to it in any meaningful manner.