Roohi (2021)

Finally!! A Bollywood movie in the theatre after so long, that too with the fam!! Okay, only one member of the fam, but still. Exciting times!!

Also, disclaimer- I haven't yet watched Stree (2018), so I have zero opinions on how it fares as a spiritual successor or whatever. Anyway, I don't really like making such comparisons, so it's better this way only. 

Now about the movie- what I liked most about Roohi was how insanely funny it was. It felt so good to laugh every 3-5 minutes over something hilarious, and Varun Sharma and Rajkummar Rao have amazing comic chemistry which just elevated the jokes. Janhvi didn't have much to do in the comedy department, but as far as I remember, her reactions were on point. As for Janhvi herself, I feel like she acted really well and played it subtle max when it came to Roohi which I appreciate because so many people would have been way too loud as the damsel in distress or overacted or whatever. However, I did find Afsa a bit too much. Not that I expected anything better from a Bollywod chudail, honestly. Plus her background music was so loud that I couldn't understand half of what she was saying??? Losers @ whoever that was responsible for this lapse. 

Let us now address the Big F, aka Feminism- no spoilers, but I absolutely loved how feminist the ending was. I was not expecting it to be this thought-provoking, but I'll need to devote some actual braincells to ponder over it. I know a lot of people and "critics" said that they found the resolution confusing (at best) but I really didn't feel like that. It was very much in keeping with the tone of the movie for me. Speaking of which, I think it's more of an absurdist comedy rather than a horror comedy. Most of the horror is stupid jump scares and I was scared only in one scene. Another problem I had with the movie was how every time I thought things were going to get scary, the whole effect would be undermined with a joke. It's not a fault of the movie itself though, because it worked but it's more of a marketing mistake. If they had actually capitalised on the "horror" scenes, then it would have made sense to call it a horror comedy, but seeing the finished product, it feels like a huge gaping misnomer, and I wouldn't be surprised if people are disappointed by it. However, I can also see some people getting scared by it, so it just might work for them. 

In conclusion, Janhvi's growing and it feels great to see. Also, can a movie that has her and Manav Vij ever not work? Just missed Pankaj Tripathi, but it's okay. I'm sure we'll get compensated some other time with a reunion of the holy trinity.

PS- I missed the "la la lala" sound in movies so much. 

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