Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on Fire!
I really do pay attention to suggestions that people make when it comes to movies, even if I don’t act on them right away. Bulbbul was recommended to me by a friend months ago, and it had been sitting in the back of my mind for some time until I finally got around to it. It’s another entry in the current subgenre of “good for her!” films. Any film where instead of simply becoming a victim the woman at the center of the film fights back against those who are otherwise destroying her life or psyche falls into this category. Many (Ready or Not, You’re Next, Happy Death Day) are horror movies, but a few (Swallow, Promising Young Woman) are dramas or are horror-adjacent. For what it’s worth, Bulbbul is firmly in the horror camp.
Our story takes place in the 19th century in India. Bulbbul (played initially by Ruchi Mahajan and then for the rest of the film by Tripti Dimri) is a child bride—a seriously child bride, since she is five—being married off. She is proxy married to Satya (Varun Buddhadev, then Avinash Tiwary as an adult), the younger brother of her actual husband Indranil (Rahul Bose). Indranil has a twin brother named Mahendra (also played by Bose) who is clearly mentally disabled and also clearly obsessed with Bulbbul despite being married to Binodini (Paoli Bam).
