Ranjan is all set to marry his sweetheart Titli, even though he is unemployed and regarded as an unsuitable groom by Titli’s family. Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao) wangles a prized government job with the help of the fixer Bhagwan (Sanjay Mishra). But a divine force has aligned against Ranjan. He finds himself reliving the day before his wedding over and over again.
May 29 refuses to move seamlessly into May 30. Ranjan is the only one who knows that he has trapped in a time loop. Bride-to-be Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi) is understandably flummoxed by his bad temper. Worse still, Ranjan can’t find a way to break the pattern.
Karan Sharma’s Bhool Chuk Maaf is Groundhog Day (1993) all over again, with Varanasi standing in for Punxsutawney and Bill Murray’s misanthropic weather man replaced by Rajkummar Rao’s anxious idler. Sharma has a writing credit on Bhool Chuk Maaf, but those who know, know.
Having introduced the time loop device to Bollywood, Bhool Chuk Maaf settles for the kind of loud, occasionally potty humour that seems to abound in the Hindi-speaking belt. The comedy extracts most of its laughs from Ranjan’s exasperation at being unable to make his family understand what is happening to him.
Ranjan’s parents (Seema Pahwa and Raghubir Yadav) dismiss his woes as pre-wedding blues. Ranjan’s loyal buddies (Ishtiyak Khan and Dheerendra Gautam) try to help out, but Ranjan isn’t exactly good at explaining what he is going through – nor is the movie, for that matter.
The staging and pacing don’t give an adequate or clear sense of Ranjan’s travails. At 121 minutes, Bhool Chuk Maaf is simply too long and repetitive in drawing a simple connection between actions and consequences. Like Ranjan, viewers too are trapped in an infernal time loop, waiting for the hapless hero to set things right.
The cosmic joke being played on Ranjan gets a higher purpose when he finally cracks the solution to his problem. The director’s heart is in the right place but the resolution is preachy in an earnest way.
Rajkummar Rao’s tonally consistent performance makes all the difference. In the dance between fatalism and individual will, Rao always displays excellent footwork and timing, especially in bringing out Ranjan’s escalating frustration.
Among the supporting cast, Ishtiyak Khan and Sanjay Mishra stand out. Wamiqa Gabbi is a misfire as the sometimes coquettish, sometimes feisty, and all-times grating Titli.
