‘Bhinna’ review: A fantastic psychological thriller let down by insensitivity

Paayal Radhakrishna’s performance is the highlight of the film, which derives heavily from the 1971 Sandalwood classic, ‘Sharapanjara’.
‘Bhinna’ review: A fantastic psychological thriller let down by insensitivity
‘Bhinna’ review: A fantastic psychological thriller let down by insensitivity
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*Spoilers ahead

Some movies give you goosebumps and keep you on the edge of your seat, but leave you extremely disappointed in the end. Bhinna is one such film. The intrigue built up for most of the film falls flat with insensitive references to persons with mental illnesses as “mentally unstable” and a psychiatrist who goads his patient to speak up or suffer the consequences.

The protagonist Kaveri (Paayal Radhakrishna) plays the role of a budding actor, obsessed with method acting. The film is a juxtaposition of Kaveri’s life with that of the hallucinations she suffers from. Kaveri begins to have an affair with the husband of the woman her husband is having an affair with. The complicated relationship dynamic aside, Kaveri is unhappy with her husband and goes on solo trips to clear her mind.

When she receives an offer for a film, she goes off on one such solo trip to a homestay in the hills, to mull over the character she has to portray. As she begins to read the script, she finds that the story is similar to the goings-on in her life.

As the plot evolves, Kaveri’s hallucinations too become vivid. She begins to picture herself as the character from the script – Devaki, who ends up killing her husband and the woman he is having an affair with. She also kills the woman’s husband. The film culminates with Kaveri beginning to question reality from hallucinations and tries to end her life. All the while, her husband keeps referring to her as ‘mentally unstable’.

Kaveri ends up in a psychiatric facility. And just when the viewer is expecting a bombastic ending considering the intrigue built up, in comes the insensitive psychiatrist who says, “If you don’t speak, I will not release you from the facility”. Thus, laying a very two-dimensional approach to the treatment of mental illnesses. This insensitive approach kills a truly amazing plot.

Deriving heavily from the 1971 Sandalwood classic – Sharapanjara (meaning a cage of arrows) – Bhinna’s characters are also named after the ones in the older film. Sharapanjara is about a woman who has a mental illness and is ostracised by her husband and society because of it. In Sharapanjara too, Kaveri’s husband Sathish cheats on her and she ends up in a psychiatric facility.

Bhinna has stark references to Sharapanjara featuring several scenes where Kaveri is looking at a painting depicting a woman trapped in a bird cage. In both films, the women are trapped by their hallucinations. In Bhinna, Kaveri is riddled with guilt after the loss of her unborn child, while in Sharapanjara Kaveri’s child is kept away from her due to societal perceptions of mental illness. The loss of the child leads the women in both films to feel guilty about their existence.

Overall, filmmaker Adarsh E Eshwarappa must be congratulated for making a Kannada film that is mostly engaging, considering the fact that Sandalwood produces copious amounts of tasteless family dramas with unnecessary punch dialogues and stereotypes.

Paayal Radhakrishna’s performance is off the charts and is the highlight of the film. The background music by Jesse Clinton, which sounds very much like Jason Hill’s background score in Netflix series Mindhunter, sets the mood for this psychological thriller. In an industry that suffers from churning out bad movie scripts to shoddy execution, Bhinna definitely stands out, except for the insensitive portrayal of persons with mental illnesses. Bhinna is like loaded French Fries – soggy but tasty.

The movie will stream on Zee5 from October 8.

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.

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