May 23, 2025: Watching Bhool Chuk Maaf feels like stepping into a photo album of Banaras, only to realize the stories behind those photos are all jumbled up. Starring Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi, the film Directed by Karan Sharma and has its heart somewhere between fantasy, romance, satire, and social commentary, but it never quite figures out where exactly it belongs.
The film follows Ranjan (Rao), an unemployed dreamer, and Titli (Gabbi), a headstrong woman from a well-off family, as they navigate societal hurdles to get married. Her father insists that Ranjan must get a government job in two months — a condition that throws the couple into a spiral of desperate decisions and, quite literally, a time loop.
Yes, a time loop. Like a Banarasi Groundhog Day. Interesting on paper, but in execution, it’s more confusing than clever.
To be fair, Bhool Chuk Maaf starts off strong. The setting, Varanasi, is rich, vibrant, and captured in stunning aerial shots. But that’s about where the consistency ends. Despite its deep cultural backdrop, the city feels more like a Bollywood backdrop than a living, breathing part of the story. It could’ve been any place, really, which defeats the whole point of grounding a story in such a unique location.
Rajkummar Rao gives his all, as always, blending frustration, charm, and slapstick in a way few actors can. Wamiqa Gabbi looks the part and delivers a sincere performance, but her character feels like she wandered in from another film entirely. Their chemistry is… uneven. You don’t quite buy that they’re in love, but you go along for the ride anyway.
And what a ride it is, chaotic, cluttered, and a bit exhausting.
The movie juggles far too many themes: love, unemployment, social pressure, dowry, scams, parental approval, even communal harmony. But instead of weaving them together, the film keeps jumping from one to another, leaving most of them half-baked.
The supporting cast is a goldmine of talent; Seema Pahwa, Raghubir Yadav, Sanjay Mishra, but none of them are given the space to shine. Special mention to Ranjan’s mother, played beautifully, who holds her broken family together through sheer will and pickle-selling grit. Sadly, her story gets sidelined by a script that can’t decide what it wants to be.
Even the music, which could have grounded the film in its Banarasi soul, ends up being forgettable at best and annoying at worst.
Perhaps the biggest confusion comes not from the Bhool Chuk Maaf film itself, but from its release, bouncing between a short theatrical window and an early TV/OTT compromise. It’s a move that reflects the movie itself: full of potential, but lost in a rush to do too much, too fast.
Bhool Chuk Maaf Review in short: A Gorgeous Mess Starring Rajkummar Rao
Bhool Chuk Maaf had everything it needed to be special, a unique setting, a stellar cast, a wild concept. But it stumbles under the weight of its own ambition. There are moments of humor, heart, and even brilliance, but they’re buried under a film that’s trying to be too many things at once.
If you’re in the mood for something different, you might find sparks of enjoyment here. But don’t be surprised if, by the end, you’re wondering what it all added up to.
Rating: 2.5/5 – Watch it for the actors and the chaos, not for the clarity.