The Woman in Red

 IT DOESN’T TAKE too long for Thamma to show us exactly how unhinged it is. In the course of the film we are introduced to various non-patriotic betaals—those who drink human blood and bear blood. The Maddock horror comedy universe is spread­ing itself thin but its essential themes of woman power, harmony between humanity and nature, and at least one erotically charged item song that will cause par­ents to shield their children’s innocent eyes, remain intact. So Rashmika Mandanna, who plays Tadaka, a mysterious woman who lives in the forest, does all the heavy lifting ini­tially, leaping across mountains, saving the hero, and living with a snake in her commode.

All the while displaying ample expanses of her chest. For extremely complicated reasons, she follows the hero, Alok Goel (Ayushmann Khurrana) into the city, where she is viewed with extreme suspicion by Father Goel (Paresh Rawal). Many CGI-aided battles and many blood-sucking sessions later, our hero not only acquires superhuman powers but also a beating heart, which allows him to give a stirring speech about humans and betaals living together in peace and love, in a new republic. It would have been nice to see the new republic headed by a woman, but then it wouldn’t have been headlined by a male A-lister, would it? All the female empowerment lessons are for the Stree films, one imagines.