A Review of Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul
By M. Anjum Khan, English, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore
The title of Anvita Dutt’s film Bulbbul is highly symbolic; though a popular female name in the Indian subcontinent, it also means a ‘caged bird’ and thus foreshadows the plight of the central character while its interplay between women and nature immediately invites an ecofeminist reading. Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s progressive portrayals of women, Dutt has created a feminist period drama set in India during the era of British imperialism. At the same time, Bulbbul is a thoroughly ecoGothic text that overlays this historical setting with the lurking presence of a demon woman who lives in the folds of an impenetrable forest.
Bulbbul is a Hindi language film written and directed by Anvita Dutt, released in June 2020. The movie was produced by Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Sharma. The film cast includes aspiring actors such as Tipti Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, Paoli Dam, Rahul Bose, and Parambrata Chattopadhyay. The plot of Bulbbul revolves around the life and marriage of Bulbbul (Tripti Dimri), the film’s central female character. Bulbbul as a child is married to Indranil, or Bado Thakur (Rahul Bose), who is an established land lord in one of the villages in British-ruled Bengal. Indranil has a mentally challenged twin brother named Mahender (also played by Rahul Bose), who is married to Binodini (Paoli Dam). The twin brothers have a younger brother Sathya (Avinash Tiwary). Bulbbul strikes up a friendship with Sathya, as he is her age and she believes that she has married him. This mistaken identity is because Bulbbul is allowed to spend more time with Satya as her husband is much older in age and is mentally ill. Later, even after realising that she is married to Sathya’s older brother, she maintains her friendly relationship with her young brother-in-law. Mistrusting this intimacy between his wife and his brother, Indranil sends Sathya abroad for education. However, he is not completely convinced of Bulbbul’s faithfulness, and, overcome with rage, he brutally attacks her. Bulbbul’s broken body is further raped by her brother-in-law Mahender, who nearly kills her. The village doctor Sudip (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) supports Bulbbul to recover both medically and emotionally. Meanwhile, the supernatural character of the chudail — a demonic tree-spirit common in South and Southeast Asian mythology — occupies the forested geographical peripheries but is the centre of everyone’s thoughts. The countryside myth of chudail is born in shape and spirit as a result of Bulbbul’s sufferings. Although, the scary myth of chudail haunts the entire narrative, she is manifested only after Bulbbul’s fleeting encounter with death.
Bulbbul’s continuous juxtaposition of this chudail and her trees with its title character lies at the heart of its ecoGothic ecofeminism. The movie opens with a mango tree and a pair of anklet-donned feet dangling from it. A chudail is identified by her reversed or inverted feet, and these ankleted feet symbolise the tree-dwelling chudail and are a metonym for her supernatural presence. However, eventually, it is revealed that the pair of feet belong to a small girl who is hiding in the tree and enjoying its fruits, and the camera’s lingering focus on Bulbbul’s feet teasingly blends the girl with the monster and foretells the fact that she will become the chudail.
A woman, maybe Bulbbul’s mother, comes looking for Bulbbul in this opening scene, removes her from the tree, and we discover that Bulbbul is to be married at the age of just five years old to a man who is four-five times her senior. The opening scene therefore interestingly portrays Bulbbul’s societal reduction in this moment to merely a fruit to be plucked by others, bartered and consumed, while at the same time gesturing to and critiquing the misogynist practice of child marriage in Indian society. This opening scene, coupled with Bulbbul’s final scene, in which she dies clinging to a tree and the forest burns around her, frames the text in strongly ecocentric terms as the main character is intermingled with the forested environment.
The entire film is set within classic Gothic environments, unfolding either in an ominous-style mansion located in the intimidating woods, or sometimes, in those foreboding woods themselves. The film’s eerie, ambient tone is achieved through the dual narrative of Bulbbul’s own journey to her husband’s house through the thick forest and the story of the chudail who reigns over this green landscape. While Bulbbul travels with the wedding party to her new home, the sinister atmosphere is accentuated as she listens to the folklore of the chudail. The carriage travels through the dark night, piercing the mysterious silence of the forest as Bulbbul is enchanted by the stories of this creature. Punctuating this journey, cinematographer Siddarth Diwan uses techniques of expressionism and surrealism and binary opposites of light and dark to depict the extremes of the eerie arboreal surroundings, while the score effectively brings the ominous environment to life. The limited number of characters and dialogue signify the setting of the film which is integral as the spectral music and the images and sounds from the forest predominate, bringing the environment centre stage.
Nonetheless, the film indicates that the horror of the physical and sexual violence carried out by the men towards Bulbbul surpasses the fearful effect of the forest and the chudail. Both her husband and her brother-in-law beat and batter her body as if it had no life, and it is only after this brutal attack that Bulbbul undergoes a symbolic and metaphysical transformation. It is subtle: Bulbbul passes away and is immediately reborn again, metamorphosing into the chudail of the forest, bent on bloody vengeance against the men who have wronged her. Bulbbul’s heightened trauma affect the looming landscape which becomes agitated and animated. The forest acts as sanctuary, fort, ally, and source of strength for Bulbbul. Her new form embodies an ambivalent binary of Goddess and demon. She is the incarnation of both chudail and Goddess Kali who represent wrath and power. Throughout the film, the Goddess is evoked by several overt symbols: grass, kaash phool (grass flower), bird and flowers (which are motifs of Indian Goddesses), and, by the end, it feels that both Goddess and demon blend as their differences blur and this obscured representation of chudail or Bulbbul justifies the killing of men who physically and mentally oppress women. Bulbbul as chudail succeeds in slaying all male perpetrators, including her husband, for breaking female bodies and brutalising their lives. Eventually, when Satya — sceptical of chudail’s attack —carries out his investigation, he discovers Bulbbul’s truth of trauma and transformation. However, it is too late for Bulbbul, as just before this startling discovery, the forest is set on fire including Bulbbul inside it. chudail does not die with Bulbbul, though, and lives on haunting the others. To this end, Bulbbul’s resurrection underscores resilience and retribution.
The film maker’s usage of an ancient trope of the female demon chudail is old-fashioned. Yet, the film’s particular incarnation of this chudail is modern and ultra-feminist, who identifies the male perpetrators commiting violence against women, and sentences them to death. The blend of the feudal with the supernatural and feminism with nature produces a thought-provoking ecoGothic and ecofeminist tale thoroughly relevant today. The film is empowering and liberating despite the all-pervading gloom. Bulbbul refuses to be her namesake (caged bird) and revives the gothic myth of chudail to emancipate herself. This transformation of Bulbbul from a damsel to a forest demon glorifies both nature and women.
Works Cited
Bulbbul. 2020. Directed by Anvita Dutt: Clean State Filmz.
Author Biography
Dr. M. Anjum Khan is working as Assistant Professor of English, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore. Her areas of research have been British Literature, Immigrant Canadian Literature and Cultural studies. She has authored books, chapters in books research essay and review articles.