Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Paresh Rawal, Varun Dhawan, Nora Fatehi, Abhishek Banerjee

Crew:

Written by Niren Bhatt, Suresh Mathew, Arun Falara
Cinematography by Saurabh Goswami
Music by Sachin-Jigar
Editing by Hemanti Sarkar
Directed by Aditya Sapotdar
Produced by Dinesh Vijan, Amar Kaushik

Dinesh Vijan has established the ambitious Maddock Horror Cinematic Universe with the success of Stree, Bhediya and Munjya. Stree 2 has cemented its place and now, adding Ayushmann Khurrana and Rashmika Mandanna as Vampires, the Universe as expanded with Thamma. The movie released on 21st Diwali and let's discuss about it in detail.

Plot:

A highly fearful and trolled journalist Alok Goel (Ayushmann Khurrana) ends up at a thick forest with his friends on a hiking trip. Tadakha (Rashmika Mandanna) saves him from a bear attack and she falls in love with him listening to his heartbeat. He falls for her as she is extremely beautiful and elegant. But he doesn't know that she is a vampire.

As other vampires try to bait him for their leader aka Thamma Yashasan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), Tadakha saves him. He asks her to stay with him and to save him, she agrees. But she realises that she is also deeply in love with him as he is during an attack. She decides to leave him as his father Goel (Paresh Rawal) gets suspicious about her, fearing she might harm him. Trying to stop her, Alok gets into an accident and to save him, she turns him into a vampire. What happens next? Watch the movie to know more.

Analysis:

Ayushmann Khurrana has developed a good reputation by delivering small town based comedies in the last decade. But his transformation into an action lead has not been smooth and here too, there are many shortcomings in writing. While his performance is good, the writing doesn't support the kind of image transfer he wants on screen and even the movie is trying to achieve.

It is more or less, like a film that is created to just introduce some sort of a villain element to Bhediya. It doesn't feel organically funny or doesn't have such horror elements that really pack a punch. The love story feels half-hearted and even the comedy scenes feel like the first draft has not been re-worked to set all the logics, right. Why would only after 1947 does a Vampire group feel like humans are impure? Aren't those who invaded India humans?

Even the romance feels like a reversal of Tarzan without much thought put in to give the lead character, a person who is supposed to become the most purest form of Bethal. It feels like any random person who falls for a beautiful woman can become Thamma. The character needed much more definition than what the makers came up with. Rashmika Mandanna looked gorgeous but the character design seemed too amateurish for her to carry.

The costume design seemed like an excuse to show her skin as much as possible rather than with some thought put in to the dressing and appearance. As the leads love story needed to connect with audiences, this version felt like mix of random thoughts than a coherent script. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is criminally wasted while Paresh Rawal plays on the nerves at times rather than geniunely evoking laughs.

Even the big Bhediya vs Vampire fight looks artificial and uninspiring. Not every story can just come up with an excuse of a random guy transported and transformed into alien like conditions on earth itself. It almost felt like makers wanted to let audiences know that such a Vampire world exists in this Horror Universe and they are more concerned about much bigger iterations of the Universe, where stakes could be high. Overall, Thamma doesn't really deliver on its promise.

Bottomline:

Thamma is a boring filler addition to the Horror Universe, without any flair, in an attempt to expand it.

Rating: 2.25/5

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