Ayushmann Khurrana – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: Now, they are sneaking into vampire territory.

Vampire Bat: We do not usually let humans make mockery of us.

Vampire Owl: Unless they can really make a good movie this time.

Vampire Bat: It feels like a near impossible situation for humans.

Vampire Owl: Well, they do make strange dumb movies out of nowhere.

Vampire Bat: We cannot deny their special ridiculous skills, can we?

Vampire Owl: At least death ends them all, the useless mortals.

Vampire Bat: You know that they can do the hate-everyone part well.

Vampire Owl: Well. Hate is only the beginning, the dawn.

Vampire Bat: You know that even death is not the beginning or the end.

[Gets a podi masala dosa and three cups of Munnar tea].

What is the movie about? :: A group of vampiric creatures known as Betaals have been wandering in the forests and nearby villages of Indian subcontinent for thousands of years, making the first known appearance to outsiders during the invasion of Alexander the Great. Yakshasan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) has remained the leader of the group since the creatures were created, and has given birth to many other vampiric creatures during his long existence as an immortal. Among the vampires, Tadaka (Rashmika Mandanna) has remained the only female presence among the warriors for the last few years. After witnessing the violence among humans during the partition of Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan, the group had decided not to drink blood from humans whose violence make them poisonous and make vampire as violent as them. But this leaves vampires weaker, and with lesser quality blood from random animals that they capture from the forest where they have set their base. This does not go well with all vampires, as drinking blood from at least the most evil humans had kept them going without any remorse for their actions.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: After years of controlling the urges, Yakshasan decides to go against the decision and also turns a number of humans into vampires after drinking their blood. This violation of promise makes the situation leads to vampires imprisoning their leader in the caverns until someone else makes a similar violation which would be drinking human blood and bringing new vampires to existence. In the case of vampires, these promises are to be kept immortally. At the same time, a journalist named Alok Goyal (Ayushmann Khurrana) is caught in the same forest and is attacked by a bear, only to be saved by Tadaka. As the vampires come to hunt him, she takes him out of there and reaches his home with him. Even though his mother Sudha Goyal (Geeta Agarwal Sharma) agrees to provide her refuge as Tadaka had saved her son’s life, his father Bajaj Goyal (Paresh Rawal) remains highly suspicious. But in the vegetarian household she struggles to find enough food, almost drinking blood from the neighbour’s dog. Still, there are more troubles that await them, and it would require them to face bigger horror.

The defence of Thamma :: There is always something about Stree and its related universe that keeps us going. That kind of a strength is right behind here. The romance does have its moments even though not really going too far ahead into the depths. The music is pretty much working in favour of the mood and the songs have different touches here. The visuals nicely create the folklore mood and the looks of the city also works well. The darkness is nicely used and some horror also walks in here and there. The action stays alive as much as the feeling of danger. The dance numbers will grace our world for a long time too. There are some parts of the story which makes the connection really well, and some of the humour comes out of nowhere to create a big impact. The ending nicely sets up the situation for a fine sequel, even though one would still doubt the collaboration of so many movies. There are references to many vampire beliefs though, and the historical connections are nicely done, even though the relevance could be questioned. The movie also manages to take some strength out of the universe which has been created here, as Leo did from its world which was already established with ease.

The claws of flaw :: The movie keeps on missing the opportunities which are provided in front of it right from the beginning itself. Some of the humour would feel too silly to have the funny side going here. There are many easy routes taken here as the in-depth journey into folklore is surely not present here. We are faced with a lot of predictabilities here too. The final sequences are not that interesting and the fight just seems to be there to bring the movie too an end – not many surprises or innovations there too. The movie’s use of elements from multiple sources seems to have hurt it too, and calling this movie an action-adventure-romance-horror-thriller-comedy makes it more of something which is not really here or there. The audience can also have the doubt if this would a vampire romance trend as brought on by Stephenie Meyer a long time ago. As this particular film of the popular franchise did not bring the fame and glory that much, one can still feel that this might not even have its own single sequel. The way vampires greet each other and the unrealistic jumping fight scenes do not serve the cause either.

The performers of the soul :: Ayushmann Khurrana leads the way pretty well, even when the situation keeps on moving to the silly side. Rashmika Mandanna makes an interesting vampire, and despite the flaws of the character, manages the humour well – the look here is suited for the vampire too. After all, seeing a few scenes from Pushpa and its sequels had us feeling that her acting skills had gone missing, but here, she takes on the vampire essence really well. There might not be many actresses who would suit this kind of a vampire role. The best of humour comes from Paresh Rawal who checks out for monsters and keeps the funny side alive – Geeta Agarwal Sharma is also around with her funny moments. Varun Dhawan’s cameo was totally unnecessary as just talking about him at the end of the movie was enough – that one never really suited the movie and just pauses the fine flow around there. Sathyaraj’s cameo was fun though and it is nice to see Nora Fatehi as a vampire as much as the dancer. Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s villainy is more related to the looks and movements and there is not much to perform to create the terrifying antagonist except for in the words of others. Faisal Malik also has his shorter nice moments.

How it finishes :: Right after Rashmika Mandanna shows her vampire teeth, we see the Sensodyne Pro-enamel ad on Amazon Prime Video, which becomes the best advertisement that can be shown for a toothpaste – who better than a vampire for a toothpaste and toothbrush ad? Well, this movie serves well in many aspects, but surely not in all of them, especially as Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra did it so well a few months ago. Matching with that particular movie would feel rather difficult here. It might be the same reason why that Malayalam movie grossed so much more than this one, that too on a lower budget. As it is displayed on various websites, the success of that movie is ten times the making cost, while this one has only managed to take home the expense. But a comparison would do only half the justice, as the genre itself has some divergence, with superhero action on one side and action horror comedy on the other side. Still, this one could have managed to do better with the folklore background, as it fuels both of them. Yet, what this movie has done is pretty much interesting and engaging, as it gives us hope for connection with other movies and sequels.

Release date: 21st October 2025
Running time: 149 minutes
Directed by: Aditya Sarpotdar
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Paresh Rawal, Geeta Agarwal Sharma, Faisal Malik, Rachit Singh, Alex O’Nell, Ankit Mohan, Vinod Suyavanshi, Hritika Kanwar, Deepak Kalra, Raj Premi, Shailesh Korde, Krishna Kant Rai, Janardhan Kadam, Hashim Haider, Deepak Daryani

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Why the Bewakoofiyaan? :: Now that should be a valid question because this was not among those movies which I was looking forward to watch. If there was any Hollywood movie or a hyped Malayalam movie releasing this weekend, I would have surely skipped this with so much ease. Neither the trailer nor the much talked about bikini scene of Sonam Kapoor actually created any interest in this movie. But if we consider the talks about the Cricket World Cup T20 affecting this movie’s business, it can only be partially true in case of a failure to prove false. I am pretty sure that cricket and movies can’t be considered in the same league. Cricket is just another sport (or the least significant of them, thanks to the match-fixing, overdose of money and the retirement of all players who were role-models as IPL has been successfully crowned as the good WWE’s evil twin brother), and movie is an art (even as there have been a lot of high-grossing movies from Bollywood in 2013 itself which attempts to prove that there is a lot of trash); so in this situation when there are not many other movies releasing to challenge this one, Bewakoofiyaan will have only itself to blame.

What is it about? :: It is the love story of Mayera Sehgal (Sonam Kapoor) and Mohit Chaddha (Ayushmann Khurana) who have been in love for quite a long time. In the beginning itself, we come to know that Mohit was promoted and now has a salary above rupees sixty thousand per month. Mayera earns more, and her father VK Sehgal (Rishi Kapoor) is an IAS officer with lots of influence in the police and the government. He is a strict father who wishes to get his daughter married to a rich man so that she can get whatever she wants. But unfortunately, she is in love with an orphan who earns less than what happens to be her salary, and Sehgal can’t accept him. So he puts his future son-in-law in a probation period as he checks his records and keeps a track of his life so that he can understand if he is any good for his daughter. At the same time, he hopes that he can somehow rejects the guy who seems not good enough for his daughter. The movie is all about how the relationship between the three progresses as the situation worsens.

The defence of Bewakoofiyaan :: There are not many things that the movie can boast about. But it does hold onto its mediocrity with such power it doesn’t end up being boring despite not being on the interesting side for long. There are no particular moments which are exceptional or too bad. The movie is like a straight line and it doesn’t go above that standard which it sets in the beginning. The flaws are there, but they can be forgiven up-to an extent as this movie takes no risk, thus keeping everything under control, no bringing any fatal blow on itself. The songs are just about average. The message of love reigning over money is there, even as it works only partially, and most of the time one is left to wonder about all the relationships in the movie, may be with the exception of one very minute love story between the workers of a coffee shop. But there is still the love, and once again they say that money has no real significance in front of love, and there comes the morality tale’s tail and it wags.

The Claws of flaw :: There are always movies like Besharam which eats and breathes flaws in bulk and thrives on nothing else. But Bewakoofiyaan doesn’t go that way even when the tendency is always there. The plot’s predictability is the first thing that keeps pulling the movie back, as we have seen such stories so many times that such overdose can make Barnabas Collins lose his faith in eternal love and burn copies of Romeo and Juliet. The emotional element is indeed weak, as the so called love separates just in the name of a rock show and shoes. Then everything just comes into place after a sudden transformation from the future father-in-law out of nowhere. This lack of ideas and innovations makes brings to us the makers’ need to inflate the movie further. The funny moments doesn’t work fully and the laughter is limited. In that case, the relief is Rishi Kapoor who handles that side with care, even as we know that there could have been so many more moments created with a story like this. I would say, use that stupidity in the title to create a big advantage!

Performers of the soul :: The first impression that one might get after hearing about the movie might be that it is the movie of Sonam Kapoor, and there is the need to look out for her. We wish that there would be something special coming up, but there is nothing. She ends up being just the third important character in the story in a movie which is all about her getting married to the man she loves, and the one thing she manages is to looks awesome throughout the two hours. Ayushmann Khurrana does well though, in a character which doesn’t seem to being anything new. We can’t say that they haven’t tried to bring the title of the movie into the plot though. But the whole thing is taken over by Rishi Kapoor more than anybody else. He remains funny throughout the movie, even as the character can’t escape from being irritating at times. We have seen better father-in-laws who wish to save their daughters from making the wrong choice, but as far as this one is concerned, it is the actor who makes it more interesting. He only gets better by the time the movie gets closer to the end.

Soul exploration :: There is question of choosing money or love, and our characters seem to choose both of them at one or the other point of time. Still, love is asserted again and again, and somehow the hero and heroine manages to stick together until that one stupid fight which lands out of nowhere. The father-in-law is too much into money until he suddenly transforms. If the message is about how minute a thing money is, that is still a fine message, in a world where Gandhiji works only paper. The movie also touches the dignity of labour and the value of true friendship, and the fact that nothing is forever; they are even doubtful about the couple happily living ever after as they write so in the end. As far as reckless spending is concerned, this doesn’t work that well as the Malayalam movie Diamond Necklace or even as much as London Bridge, as that side is too much eclipsed by the romantic side. But one can’t disagree to the fact that some lessons might have been learned by the protagonists and there is a lot more in store.

How it finishes :: My birthday was this week, just a few days ago and my desire to watch a movie on the day was finally fulfilled with this one. Yes, I am giving a certain amount of birthday bonus to this movie, as there would have been no birthday movie for me if it wasn’t for this one. Yes, there are no better movies which released this weekend. The number of theatre going audience has gone down, but still the fact remains that they have failed to release movies like Prisoners, Oldboy, Ender’s Game, I Frankenstein and Non-stop here; when they don’t release such movies which can bring audience, and instead did come up with movies like After Earth and Mortal Instruments: City of Bones last year, there is no doubt that they don’t know what the viewers want. Then there is 300: Rise of an Empire with the most shows in a multiplex which will be abandoned by families; so this is your week, Bewakoofiyaan – hold on to it, and if you can stick to the screens and the opinions won’t go too bad, you can come out well; after all you are still better than movies like Chennai Express, Krrish 3 and Dhoom 3.

Release date: 14th March 2014
Running time: 118 minutes
Directed by: Nupur Asthana
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor