Thamma
Hindi - Horror / Comedy150 minsPrime Video
Kevin Feige took over a decade, twenty-three films, and the full might of a studio ecosystem to realise the Avengers Infinity Saga. He had the vision, the patience and most importantly, the infrastructure. He was able to bring together multiple writers, filmmakers of wildly different temperaments, and long-form narrative planning to birth the Cinematic universe. Something which audiences also hugely invested in, eventually paying off magnificently for everyone involved.
Buoyed by the unprecedented success of Stree, Bhediya and Stree2, Dinesh Vijan and Maddock Films now wish to mount a similar long-term gamble of their own: the MHCU, or Maddock Horror Cinematic Universe. Hindi cinema has not laid out such a long term ambition hitherto. I want to be supportive. Truly.
Unfortunately, Thamma made it difficult.
Thamma follows Alok Goyal (Ayushmann Khurrana), a failed YouTube journalist who fancies himself a desi Bear Grylls, only to be rescued by Tadaka (Rashmika Mandanna). Tadaka belongs to a secluded community of Betaals (vampires) who have lived hidden from humanity for centuries, guarding both their existence and their most dangerous secret: the erratic, volatile Yakshasan, (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).
A vampire in an urban Indian setting could have easily yielded either a sharp horror-comedy or a pulpy, mad love story. Instead, the film hesitates, dithers, and ultimately refuses to commit to either tone. It ends up being a confused non-starter that exists largely to introduce future players, some interesting cameos rather than tell a compelling story in its own right.
Some of the banter between Alok and his father (Paresh Rawal) lands well, as silly they might be. A running gag involving a city policeman who is secretly a vampire in hiding (Faisal Malik) offers brief amusement. Beyond these moments, the film is inert, bloated in length and flat in delivery.
Not even the three (yes three!) item songs are worth remembering, maybe "Tum mere na hue na sahi", which is probably more to Madhubanti Bagchi's singing than anything else.
For someone positioned as a key antagonist going forward, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is given surprisingly little to do. That said, he elevates what little he is given, injecting personality into his scenes. His “Panchi banu, udke chalun” bit is one of the better moments.
Paresh Rawal, appears trapped in writing that cannot decide if he has to be a comic dad or an emotional one. Rashmika Mandanna delivers exactly the performance one fears she might: stiff, robotic, and emotionally inert, in spite of the generous Satyam Shivam Sundaram throwback.
Ayushmann Khurrana seems as uncertain about the film’s tonal demands as the audience. He has a few decent lines and isolated scenes, but the performance never coheres into a character.
One of Bhediya’s strongest assets was its visual effects, particularly during the transformation sequences. Thamma falters badly here. The VFX are disappointingly average, bordering on kiddish, and suggest a worrying complacency from the makers.
This is especially glaring when one recalls Munjya, made with significantly fewer resources and lesser-known actors, yet crafted with far greater confidence and imagination. In my view, Munjya was superior even to Stree 2. Which is why i was rather surprised with Aditya Sarpotdar's (also director of Munjya) tame effort here.
Released as a major Diwali 2025 offering, Thamma did just enough business to stay afloat This should definitely be seen as warning for the MHCU. Even the MCU had its missteps. Thor: The Dark World and Ant-Man and the Wasp were far from triumphs, yet they served crucial narrative functions. Hopefully Thamma will be granted similar indulgence in hindsight.
The MHCU team would do well to pause, reassess and return to fundamentals: sharper writing, clearer tone, clever and funny dialogue, perhaps even test screenings to get feedback A cinematic universe is not built on introductions alone. It needs stories worth investing in, one film at a time.
Thamma felt less like the beginning of something exciting and more like a pitch deck stretched to feature length
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