Thamma Review: Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna’s Horror-Comedy Is So Much Yet Nothing!
Aditya Sarpotdar's Thamma hit the theatres on October 21. Here's our quick review.
2 / 5
For me, the definition of a good film is how it makes me feel after I come out of the theatre. If I am still thinking about the movie, or telling my friends and colleagues about it out of excitement, then bam, the film has worked! Well, now coming to how Ayushmann Khurrana and Rashmika Mandanna’s film Thamma, directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, from Maddock’s horror-comedy universe, made me feel? All of the above, but not really in a positive way. However, the film is atleast more than the three item songs that were dropped to create a buzz around it. Thamma tries to accommodate so much into the almost 2-hour-30-long film, and does it so most inconsistently and haphazardly. Here’s my two cents on the same.
Plot
At its core, Thamma is a love story between Taadka, (Rashmika Mandanna), a Betaal, from the Vampire family, and Alok Goyal (Ayushmann Khurrana), and human and journalist by profession. But this changes when Ayushmann’s Alok turns into a betaal himself and then has a bigger purpose to serve in life. Amid this love story, there are also also sub-plots like Betaal’s origin, Bhediya crossover, and all this for setting the groundwork of a new character and story into the larger horror-comedy universe. Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Yakshana, the Thamma of the Betaals, and in this case, the villain. In the climax, Alok and Yakshana come face-to-face for the final battle. So that pretty much sums up the plot of this horror-comedy!
Writing, Screenplay
Thamma struggles big time in these areas. The plot deviates so much that at its difficult to hold on to any emotion, and stay with it. But wait emotions? That’s hardly there too. Thamma’s story is all over the place and screenplay is inconsistent. To move the story forward, item songs, most random romantic scenes, or cameos have been used. Well, among the cameos, one stands out. The social media inspired humour yet again kills the fun in many moments. Like, I miss the old days when natural and subtle comedy used to be norm. Now, it’s just caricaturist characters, over-the-top expressions and one-liners that don’t land at all. It’s so evident that enough effort has not been put to build-up up the love story between the two lead characters, and by that I mean, their love story is just thrown at us through songs, slow-motions, out-of-nowhere kisses, and of course, main-isko-jaane-nahi-dunga tropes. Where is the feel and nuance to all of these things?
Horror is hardly to be seen or felt, and the writing is not as crisp or engaging as other films like Stree or Munjya from the same universe. The excitement to know more about what will happen next is not felt either.
Character
Before diving into the specifics of each character, let’s just put it out there, that all of the characters are cursed with mid to bad writing.
Ayushmann Khurrana’s Alok is shown to be an underconfident guy, a failed journalist, and in desperate need of a girlfriend. Well, that’s what I could make of him in the little time that’s invested to tell us about the character. Well, cut to, he is saved by this beautiful woman Taadka, who lives in the jungle, and has a very unique personality, nothing like a human. However, still, we are expected to believe that Alok falls in love with the girl, and has absolutely no clue or idea that she is not a human, until she unintentionally does the fight scene with the bad boys. Well, as much as Alok is show to be this dumbdown character, his arc to finally becoming Thamma is not convincing either. The writing is so bland, that even with Ayushmann’s great acting skills, the potential seems to be lost.
Rashmika Mandanna as Taadka has done a pretty good job with the look, expression, however, the dialogue delivery bother’s big time, especially, in moments of confrontation when the actor is emoting anger, or frustration.
Nawazuddin’s character is made to look so caricaturist, and how much can an actor to do to save that?
Paresh Rawal as Alok’s father is effortless, although the comic moments given to this character is so not upto to the mark. It feels like a sin to see such a great actor do that, however, he still manages to pull them off somehow.
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Verdict: Less To Feel, More To Frustrate!
Ayushmann Khurrana and Rashmika Mandanna’s Thamma will still be talked about among friends, but well, the discussions will be more on how the Aditya Sarpotdar’s directorial gives us so little to feel good about. Thamma’s basic plot could have been a good start but in the attempt to make it a little of everything, it ends up becoming nothing. When I connect, feel or root for the characters, am I really into the film? One might think! The constant distraction with the songs, half-baked characters, superficial love scenes, makes this movie-watching experience worse. The visuals and VFX are average, except in the cameo scene, which standsout.. Such great actors, however, not one memorable character to cherish. Sad? No, pathetic! Thamma is another product of lazy writing and it’s currently running in theatres.
Image Courtesy: Twitter
First Published: October 21, 2025 4:35 PM
