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Bhool Chuk Maaf Gets Stuck In A Time Loop Of Its Own Making

Bhool Chuk Maaf could’ve been another smart Maddock social comedy, but it gets bogged down by lazy writing, stereotypes, and a climactic moral monologue that lands with a thud.

Ishita+Sengupta
May 24, 2025

Promo poster for Bhool Chuk Maaf

BEFORE BREAKING OUT with horror comedies, Maddock Films’ slate consisted largely of social comedies. The production house not just bankrolled them but, through reiteration, set a template where unusual premise offset the familiarity of the messaging. In Bala (2019), social prejudice was addressed through the inventive set-up of an insecure man losing his hair; in Mimi (2020), the complexity of motherhood was conveyed through surrogacy. Bhool Chuk Maaf their latest film, uses similar embellishment, but the dressing is hollow and the tone is patronising.It is difficult to see through the facade, at least on the surface. Karan Sharma’s film begins on a playful note. Ranjan Tiwari (Rajkummar Rao) and Titli Mishra (Wamiqa Gabbi) want to get married. They have been in love for long, but their parents, mainly hers, are not ready to accept the union. Reasons are plenty, but Titli’s father (the inimitable Zakir Hussain wasted in a one-note role) wants the groom to have a government job. This wouldn’t have posed a problem if Ranjan were a capable man. Family movie marathon? Start with these Hindi dramas on OTTplay Premium
Although caring, Ranjan's positive attributes run out soon. He is unemployed, borderline rude and unambitious. His sense of purpose is so deflated that it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that he wants to marry Titli because she is eager to marry him. On the other hand, the girl is all grit and chaos. She takes charge of things and spends most of the runtime taunting him for not stepping up. When they reach a deadlock — it's either job or marriage — Ranjan finds a shady old man called Bhagwan (God; played by Sanjay Mishra) who promises him a stable job in exchange for money. Some songs on the Varanasi ghat later, Ranjan and Titli’s marriage date is fixed. There is just one lingering problem. Ranjan’s life is stuck on a particular date — the eve of his marriage. Try as he might, the next day refuses to arrive for him.The time loop is initially amusing, with its effectiveness resting largely on Rao’s able shoulders. While Bhool Chuk Maaf might be an extension of his small-town franchise films but the merit of the actor imbues the role with a distinctiveness of its own. As days and months turn into one particular day, his frustration burgeons and the physicality of the performance lends it a viscerality that the film as a whole lacks. His shoulders slouch and his gait gets defeatist, but each gesture is specific to the passage of time.
In comparison, Sharma’s film gets duller by the minute once the conceit wears off. Bhool Chuk Maaf not just gets stuck in the loop of its creation, but renders the loop with cursory attention. As the plot unravels and the sameness of the days meld into one, several little details refuse to add up. Ranjan is always accompanied by his uncle and friend, and as they go through the knowing and unknowing of Ranjan’s tragedy, it becomes difficult to ascertain the extent of their knowledge. Towards the end, they appear to have been stuck with the protagonist in their own coil of time. Best Hindi films with marriage themes like Bhool Chuk Maaf to watch on OTTplay Premium The labour of watching it proves to be more empty when one considers the redundancy of the revelation. Not only does it arrive till much later in the second half, but the sanctimonious tone undoes the virtue of its intent. Revealing it would count as a spoiler, but mentioning this should suffice: think of the many ways in which the film could have conveyed the severity of a community, and it does so by proclaiming the magnanimity of a majoritarian religion.
The writing is inconsistent throughout and sanctions stereotypes as characters (Titli is written as a modern-day exasperated update of Jab We Met’s Geet, and Gabbi is equally grating). But it's most evident in the climax, where a sweeping monologue is not just used as a shorthand to hammer the point of the film home, but also designed to be delivered by a character who largely remained absent from the proceedings.Bhool Chuk Maaf takes an awfully long time to pinpoint a simple message: keep doing work and not worry about the consequences. By the time it arrives (many Tanishk Bagchi songs later), it refuses to matter if Ranjan is stuck on a single date, or if Titli is worried about the prospect of her wedding. There is no forgiveness for this behaviour.

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