By: Sohon Simlai
Before getting straight into the movie analysis of Bhediya, I think it’s important to mention how over the cloud we all students were to go and watch a movie directed by one of our alumni Amar Kaushik. The movie was a delight to watch with friends and family. The simple storytelling, with the perfect amount of horror and comic element, worked wonders. The way it addressed major social, socio-political and geo-political issues throughout the movie provided an extra flavour to the film, adding to the fact that how big of a channel films are for mass communication.
The film revolves around Bhaskar Sharma, played by Varun Dhawan, a happy-go-lucky, yet very ambitious guy. He works for a big architecture/construction company who are planning to build a road through the dense forest of Arunachal that would go around the forest perimeter, resulting in deforestation and damaging the ecological balance. Bhaskar, to impress his boss and feed his greed, overlooked the fact of how damaging it would be to the flora and fauna of Arunachal.
Bhaskar along with his two friends goes on a journey to convince the residents of the village in Arunachal as to how important the roadways are for them, as the lack of commute has created a huge barrier between them and the rest of India. Most people were reluctant initially but eventually, after lots of persuasions and bribes by Bhaskar, the locals finally gave in.
In the meantime, while Bhaskar was on the quest to convince the locals, they get stranded in the forest where he gets bitten by a wolf. As days pass by, Bhaskar realises something is wrong with him. He turns into a shape-shifting wolf every night and kills all the corrupt people who said yes to the project, the weirdest part is he doesn’t recollect a single thing the next day, making his work extremely difficult to finish.
Dr. Anika played by Kriti Sanon, who’s a Vet, takes care of Bhaskar as no one else in the village would take care of him as getting bitten by a wolf is a bad omen. As the story goes on, it unravels that even Dr. Anika is a werewolf who has been guarding the forests of Arunachal for the past 100 years and is still on the quest of saving the forest from big MNCs who try to vandalise it for the sake of
development.
Finally, even Bhaskar understands his wrongdoings and gives in to the good cause of Dr. Anika of saving the flora and fauna of Arunachal.
The horror comedy genre is comparatively new in Indian films, the first ones being Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), Go Goa Gone (2013), and Stree (2018). This genre was introduced in Hollywood long back, in the contemporary context, it revamped itself as a parody of famous horror movies and later turned into standalone independent movies. Edgar Wright is one of the contemporary filmmakers who pioneered this genre.
Bhediya is a fun movie to watch as said before but certain abrupt open endings did not go unnoticed. The clash between Bhaskar and his boss and his own financial condition was not concluded at all.
Moreover, the Indian audience is not limited to India anymore, the concept of a werewolf has been shown in Hollywood and western stories for a long time now, and the Indian audience was also exposed to it. Famous movies and series like Harry Potter, Twilight Saga, etc. gained a major appreciation from people all over the world, and the Indian audience was no exception. The CGI, VFX, and graphics were on-point and realistic compared to other Indian movies.
Apart from the cinematography and VFX being good, the music and sound treatment were impeccable as well.
It wouldn’t be fair to slip up on the effort put on to address certain social issues which are rarely talked about even though it has been nothing but a bane to Indian society – racism, environmental degradation, and fraudulence.