Munjya Review: Fresh Story, Stellar Performances Make Sharvari, Abhay Verma’s Horror Comedy Unmissable!
Munjya starring Abhay Verma, Sharvari and Mona Singh is a horror-comedy directed by Aditya Sarpotdar. From performances to story, here's a detailed review of the film.
3.5 / 5
Horror comedy is a tough genre to crack. Indian cinema has produced many of them but only a handful of them have ended up impressing the audience. It’s safe to say that the new film Munjya, directed by Aditya Sarpotdar and produced by Dinesh Vijan is a deserving movie in this genre that can be added to your list of favourites. It stars Sharvari, Abhay Verma, Mona Singh, and Sathyaraj in lead roles. The film is based on Konkoni folklore that revolves around the legend of Munjyas. With a fresh storyline, and some noteworthy performances, the Aditya Sarpotdar directorial is quite an entertainer that finally brings an end to the depressing dry season in films that we all experienced in May! Let me now convince you why this one is worth your money despite a few drawbacks, also, it’s spoiler-free!
What Is The Meaning Of Munjya?
Just to give you a brief, Munjya comes from the Marathi term ‘Munj’. The word means thread ceremony which is still practised in the Brahmin community. Now Munjya means a young boy who dies within 10 few days of his thread-ceremony. In Konkani folklore, there is a mythological story about Munjyas who turn into Brahm Rakshas and usually reside on peepal trees. They are considered to be troublesome and scary and they can only be seen by the members of their bloodline. Furthermore, a Munjya wanders in the human world only because he has an unfulfilled wish, mostly related to his love life.
The Plot
The movie revolves around Bittu (Abhay Verma), a boy who resides in Pune. He has a very different, shy and underconfident personality. Bittu works at his mother’s (Mona Singh) parlour and is madly in love with a girl Bella (Sharvari). However, he never finds the courage to tell her that. Bittu is very attached to his grandmother (Suhas Joshi). In the first few minutes of the film, we are also aware that Bitty struggles with scary flashbacks of his village in the Konkani region and a place named Chetukwadi. Munjya moves forward to tell us how Bittu faces his fear when he visits his village and the unfortunate incidents that follow. Bitty is haunted by Mujya who forces him to find Munni, the woman who he couldn’t marry in his past life. However, Munjya ends up asking Bittu to get him married to Bella. In the second half, the film is all about how Bittu, his cousin Diljit (Taran Singh) and a psychic (Sathyaraj) try to get the protagonist out of this horror mess.
What Works?
Storytelling
Aditya Sarpotdar’s horror-comedy Munjya picks a very fresh, not-so-known folklore as the core base of this film. This story is also told in a very interesting and engaging way. Just like the Maddock Film Stree, even Munjya leaves no stone unturned in making us believe in the story of the Brahmakshas with a well-explained narrative. The characters will faintly remind you of Stree as well, and the storytelling somewhat follows the same pattern, By that I mean, that the first half revolves around establishing Munjya’s destructive nature while post-interval, the narrative focuses more on educating the audience about its origin and solutions to end its horror! This formula works for Munjya too! The unexpected jump scares throughout the film were honestly the best part for me.
Performances
Abhay Verma as Bittu does a fabulous job of playing the character of a timid and scared boy. The actor makes his part look believable. Just like Rajkummar Rao in Stree, even Abhay Verma’s Bittu goes through a very organic transformation by the end of the film, while keeping his original nature intact. Abhay Varma is flawless in delivering the various expressions of his character, whether it is moments of fear, facing his fear, or looking at Bella with love in his eyes. I especially loved a very emotional moment that Bittu shared with his grandmother (Suhas Joshi), and NGL, a few drops of tears rolled down my eyes too!
Sharvari: Well, the actress had more screen presence in the second of the film. However, she was a decent fit for this film. Sharvari justifies her role as bubbly and confused Bella who is confident about her career but not about her love life. She is charming and is like a breath of fresh on the big screen. Her expressive eyes will captivate you just like it does to Bittu!
Mona Singh: The loud and all-time frustrated Punjabi aunty Pammi is a character that Mona Singh is meant to play, and I wouldn’t have liked it any other way. She shares a very pure and natural dynamic with her on-screen son Abhay Verma, and well, her character adds the comedy element as well which again Mona Singh pulls off effortlessly.
Suhas Joshi as Bittu’s grandmother delivers a stellar performance too. She becomes a strength for Bittu and leaves a strong impact in the film with her acting. She symbolises values and courage in this film and Suhas Joshi does the job well!
Taran Singh as Diljit Spielberg has to be the ONLY comic character in Munjya. The best part about his acting is that he does not try to force his comedy on you, it’s just natural and hearty. Like any horror-comedy film, even the character of Diljit was conventional. I mean, the character of a funny friend who helps the protagonist deal with the ghost, while also behaving quirky and foolish, but it’s only Taran Singh’s ability as an actor to make this character look as fresh as a daisy!
Direction
Aditya Sarpotdar’s direction is amazing. His understanding of the folklore and the subject was very well-blended in the film. His way of telling the story of Munjya as a horror-comedy was filled with more unexpected moments of jump scares and laughs. The decisions of when and where to place the close-up shots and long shots, and the sudden appearances of Munjya greatly impacted getting the desired reactions from the audience, and for a change, I found myself reacting in the same way as the audience, sometimes maybe a little more!
What Doesn’t Work?
The BGM, Sounds
The screechy noise when Munjya shouts and orders Bittu to find Munni, or whenever he desperately wants something was quite irritating. Most of us just had to shut our ears. Understandably, this may be a deliberate move by the director to make the audience feel what Bittu was feeling, however, I do not appreciate it. Like other horror-comedies, the BGM of this film is not that great and it does not help to make the narrative engaging in any way.
VFX
The character of Mujya and other VFX elements in this film are quite average. After the standards set by Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon’s film Bhediya from the same universe of folklore, Munjya does not stand up to the expectations. It’s rather funny!
Sathyaraj’s Character
Sathyaraj’s character as the self-taught psychic was underwhelming. I couldn’t help but draw parallels with Pankaj Tripathi’s character in Stree. Even Sathyaraj’s character tries to be funny while helping the protagonist solve the case of Munjya, but it’s all in vain. This failure greatly comes from the lack of effort put into writing his character. Well, I have to say, this is the least memorable character sadly.
Less Comedy
In the first half of Munjya, the movie hardly has moments of comedy. It only picks up when Taran Singh’s character gains more screen presence, and that mostly happens post-interval. Given that films like Bhool Bhulaiya and Stree have certainly set the benchmark here, Munjya too had the potential but it does fall back.
Verdict
Aditya Sapotdar’s Munjya is an honest attempt to bring back an engaging horror-comedy on the big screen. With the stellar performance by the cast, the artistic direction and an interesting narrative at the forefront, Munjya is definitely a one-time watch in the theatre. It’s a light-hearted film with shortcomings that don’t affect the entertainment. It’s a film that can be watched with family, and will leave you with a smile and some knowledge about this well-known Konkani folklore, which in my opinion is kaafi amusing! It hit the theatres on June 7, so aap convince hue ya aur bolun?
First Published: June 07, 2024 12:43 PM
