Bulbbul
On: Netflix
Director: Anvita Dutt
Cast: Tripti Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, Rahul Bose
Rating:

The sky turns deep red as does the entire screen, for significant portions of this film, shown to be shot in natural light, namely fire at night. The setting is a medieval mansion in late 19th Century Bengal. Or what you'd call Raj/Thakur/Zamindar's Bari, with a massive courtyard, and a series of rooms facing the front. The smoky forest with the horse-carriage riding through it look like they could be in Transylvania.

Keenly aesthetic, slightly overboard; no, what is this? A Sanjay Leela Bhansali film in the supernatural space? Or Satyajit Ray's Charulata (1964), supplanted from the same time-frame, in a separate context? Is the lead male actor (Avinash Tiwary) styled like he's straight out of Vikramaditya Motwane's Lootera (2013)?

And it's not that we haven't seen a Bombay film that, on the face of it, appears to be about ghosts/witches perhaps; but production-design wise, it is as mainstream as it gets. Ek Thi Daayan (2013), produced by Vishal Bhardwaj, comes to mind.