Bulbbul 2020

Bulbbul Triptii Dimri is married off in the 19th century to Indranil, a wealthy lord, when she is barely five years old. She grows up in a village household where she forms a close, almost sister-like bond with Satya Avinash Tiwary, Indranil’s younger brother who is closer to her age. Together they share stories of a sinister witch known as the chudail, a figure that both fascinates and terrifies them as they navigate the rules and confinements of village life. The bond between Bulbbul and Satya becomes the emotional throughline of their childhood, a silent pact against the loneliness of their world.

Twenty years pass, and Satya returns from London after spending five years abroad. In the interim, Indranil’s mentally-challenged twin brother Mahendra Rahul Bose has died in what many villagers believe was the work of a chudail. Mahendra’s widow Binodini Paoli Dam now inhabits an outhouse on the estate. Indranil has left the village, and Bulbbul has stepped into a position of responsibility, managing the household and caring for the community in his stead. The village doctor, Sudip Parambrata Chatterjee, regularly visits to check Bulbbul’s feet after a troubling incident she refuses to discuss. When another man is killed, Satya’s suspicions tilt toward Sudip, while Bulbbul herself receives a troubling communication from a village boy whose mother killed herself after her husband took a second wife.

In flashbacks, it’s revealed that Binodini had long harbored jealousy toward Bulbbul and Indranil, hinting that Bulbbul’s heart might lean toward Satya. The seed of doubt in Indranil’s mind grows, and he sends Satya to London to pull them apart. Bulbbul and Satya had even been collaborating on a story, but heartbreak arises—the manuscript is burned in a fireplace. When Indranil sees the surviving title page and recognizes their names together, he grows convinced that Bulbbul loves Satya. Enraged, he brutalizes her and mutilates her feet with iron bars. While she is bedridden, Mahendra rapes her, his cruelty culminating in a suffocating embrace that she cannot escape.

From that moment, Bulbbul undergoes a supernatural transformation. The once-soft, well-spoken girl becomes a powerful, determined woman on a mission to shield the women of her village from injustice. Each time she asserts herself, a blood-red moon rises, a symbolic sign that the goddess Kali herself supports her. She begins to punish the men who abuse, murder, or take advantage of girls, drawing on the myth of the chudail to strike fear into those who would prey on the vulnerable. In truth, Bulbbul embodies the feared specter of the chudail as she quietly extinguishes oppressive forces, even killing Mahendra in the process.

In the present day, Satya accompanies Sudip to Calcutta, and the danger intensifies. The village driver’s death at the hands of the chudail convinces Satya of something larger at work—and he realizes Sudip is innocent. He confronts the mysterious woman, and in the ensuing struggle, a forest fire is sparked. In the heat of the chaos, Satya discovers that Bulbbul is the chudail, and the moment of truth shatters him. Overcome with guilt and despair, he watches as Bulbbul, perched on a tree, is gradually consumed by the flames.

A year passes. Indranil returns to his empty estate, unaware of the truth that has unraveled around him, and Satya departs, carrying guilt that gnaws at him and a sense that he, too, might become like his brothers. That night, Bulbbul reappears to Indranil with a sly, chilling smile, hinting that vengeance is far from over and that she will kill him as retribution for the years of pain and the betrayals that followed. The film leaves a stark, spectral impression of a woman who has transformed into an instrument of justice, and a village’s fear and awe in the face of a legend that refuses to stay buried.

• Bulbbul’s fate is inseparable from the myth she embodies, as she channels power through the symbol of the Kali-guided moon and the mythic presence of the chudail.

• The story moves between intimate childhood bonds, the trauma of abuse, and a fierce, otherworldly justice that challenges patriarchal norms.

• The performances—particularly the dual life of Bulbbul as a gentle girl and a fearsome defender—underscore themes of resilience, revenge, and the uneasy answer to who truly holds power in a village haunted by legends.