Thamma Movie Review: Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna, Nawazuddin Siddiqui Trio Fail To Lift Weak Horror-Comedy
After successful releases such as Stree, Bhediya, and Munjya, Maddock Films also returned to the horror-comedy space with Thamma featuring Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Paresh Rawal. Directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, Thamma - expected to have the same pizazz - chosen material and unnecessary, disappointing tone dragged it and the script down, and sadly it is nothing more than a mild spoiler for this festive release.
STORYLINE
Set in a small and superstitious village, Thamma is about a man living in the city by the name of Vikram (Ayushmann Khurrana) who moves back into his ancestral home. Vikram gets sucked into the village's folklore about the spirit known as Thamma. The film starts off on a positive note but begins to go downhill as it struggles to balance the horror and comedy. The film is excessively geared towards being both funny and spooky but is neither. Much of the first part of the film is spattered with real jump scares that are almost comical, subplots that do not belong in the film, and drawn out, poorly played emotional pieces that lead to an ineffective conflict of what was supposed to be suspense.
Technical Aspects and Music
The cinematography is effective enough to capture the rural location, but the visual effects are cheap and lack modernity. The background music desperately attempts to create tension, but ultimately feels tedious, and often repetitive. The songs are clearly well-meaning, but are out of place in the film, and slow down an already slow-moving narrative further.
Overall: Biopic had all the ingredients to work as a blockbuster - an able cast, a hit production banner behind it, and a very fun premise. It is the execution only in the writing and screenplay that lets this idea down quite dramatically. A film that could have and should have been a fun, entertaining drama over the Diwali holiday, turns into a long, comedic disaster and misses the critical elements of horror, drama, or power entertainment. In short, really poor writing.
