What to make of star-actor Ayushmann Khurrana’s first desi ‘festival film’, Thamma? Let’s see...
A still from the horror action comedy Thamma, starring Ayushmann Khurrana
How far can you throw the ball to fetch the imagination? Aditya Satpotdar’s Thamma, that’s opened in theatres, blasts off with the year 323 BC!
That’s when, apparently, Alexander the Great, from Greece, through Egypt, is invading India. And a ‘betaal’, in short, a desi vampire, gets in his way.
Have you heard of a nationalist vampire? Surely, that’s what Thamma is — sucking Alexander’s blood, for attempting to attack Bharat!
Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays this title role, although he appears for no longer than three-four scenes in this movie so mainstream!
Thamma is star-actor Ayushmann Khurrana’s first ‘festival film’. In the context of Indian cinema, that’s the opposite of an art-house movie — signifying, instead, the number of festivals celebrated in India; subsequently, hence, the big-ticket weekends at the cinemas.
Diwali, usually, tops that heap. Consider that the two Diwali releases of 2024 (Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, Singham Again), alone, accounted for a tenth of the Bollywood box-office revenues that year.
As a movie, Thamma is wholly set in the supernatural/paranormal space — which, if it was Hollywood, would be perfect for a Halloween (October 31) release, that anyway falls around Diwali!
Since the film’s genre has nothing to do with realism, the only parallel to draw is that — for his training, actor Ayushmann Khurrana has formally studied journalism. And he plays a journalist in this pic.
Which, as a profession, tallies more with superhero films where, say, Clark Kent, the alter ego of DC’s Superman, or Peter Parker for Marvel’s Spider-Man, work for newspapers, Daily Planet (Metropolis), Daily Bugle (New York), respectively.
Likewise, Thamma is the story of a common man, Alok (Ayushmann), acquiring superpowers. He becomes a ‘betaal’! But what’s that?
Those of the Doordarshan vintage will, of course, know the character from the mythological show, Vikram Aur Betaal (1985), produced by Ramayan’s Ramanand Sagar, based on Somdev Bhatt’s Sanskrit work, Baital Pachisi, from the 11th century.
Wherein King Vikramaditya (Arun Govil/Ramayan’s Ram), in every episode, carries on his back, the creepy AF, Betaal (Sajjan), the ‘undead’ corpse, who tells him a new story, with a moral riddle/dilemma at the end.
The ‘betaals’ in Thamma, in its place, are a secret society of similarly undead corpses.
Or perhaps not so secret — given how easily the film’s hero tumbles for a few seconds on a trek with friends, and lands up at their headquarters, with a hot betaal (Rashmika Mandanna), suitably dressed in ghagra-choli from her summer-wear, coming to the hero’s rescue.
These bloodsucking betaals have developed a code, since 1947, to never suck the blood of humans anymore. That’s after they witnessed the bloodshed during India’s Partition to realise how much poison resides in the human brain, hence blood, after all.
It’s a rather rare political statement for a ‘Dracula drama’, by the screenwriters (Niren Bhatt, Suresh Mathew, Arun Falara). That compliment comes with a caveat for how over-wrought/over-written much of this picture feels, until you kinda settle into its world.
For its audience category, one might prefer to ‘keep it simple, stupid’, since kids must enjoy it, foremost (I suppose they will still).
Maybe that’s also a reason Thamma doesn’t seem spontaneously funny enough. For, comedy, like romance (and this is both) land the hardest, when there are emptier passages of characters chilling, doing their thing, rather than perennially leaping to the next plot-point.
Check: Stree (2018). Which commenced the shared ‘Maddock Horror Comedy Universe’ that Thamma is a part of, along with Munjya (2024), Bhediya (2022).
As their characters merge into this common screen, excessively teasing, cross-referencing — the sense you get is of the filmmakers somehow obsessed more with the spin-off/franchise, than this film itself, that’s such a greater delight on its own!
I suspect the word ‘universe’ is stand-in for ‘formula’. You can see why so many supernatural movies land in theatres, lately, though — Kantara, Maa, Shaitaan…
To begin with, technically, the screens get so dim in this genre that the poor contrast-ratios of the best phones, or even regular smart TVs, will force you to savour them better inside the darkest halls.
Plus, there’s the collectively tribal, theatrical thrill of escaping into another unknown world!
Finely-cut Ayushmann — who’s been on the road since Vicky Donor (2012), navigating entertainingly realistic films, with clever premises/conflicts — is, of course, new to this scene.
Up until the pandemic, Ayushmann’s picks were par for box-office gold. Post which, the growing perception became that they’re actually movies fitter for OTT. I don’t think there’s any such rule.
Recently, during an interview before a live audience at the FICCI Frames summit, I asked Ayushmann, what did he make of that distinction, himself?
He said, he saw his filmography split between subjects that are: a) “quirky”, b) deal with “taboos”.
The latter, he felt, were better suited for OTTs — for example, he suggested, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017; on erectile dysfunction).
The former were still very much big-screen entertainers— as in, he cited, Badhaai Ho (2018; middle-aged pregnant couple).
I guess you could similarly slot between Ayushmann’s Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021) and Bala (2019); Doctor G (2022) and Dream Girl (2019)… Gotta agree with him on this one, though.
Thamma is pure quirk-max. Easily a comeback of sorts for Ayushmann. For the most part, the attempt is story-telling still. That’s essential to convey, and great to know.
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture.
He tweets @mayankw14. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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