“The Hand of God Is With Youuuu”
Spoiler Warning
This Thamma review will be full of spoilers, so skip to the last paragraph if you haven’t seen the film and are only looking for the verdict. Kyuki, “Ande ka Omlette ban sakta hai, par kya Omlette ka Anda ban sakta hai?”
Acting
Ayushmann Khurrana – Ayushmann Khurrana was funny like he has always been. But there needed to be more to his character, something like we feel for the other characters, even thoguh most of them are mere humans. Alok becomes Thamma, in that way, his character and characteristics needed to have something more than they showed in the film.
Rashmika Mandanna – A lot of people keep criticizing Rashmika. While some of it is genuine, most is not. In Thamma she played her part perfectly. She is a Betaal who does not know much. Toh thodi cute, thodi innocent, thodi khatarnaak, thodi confused character hai wo, and wo part usne acche se kiya. Her chemistry with Ayushmann was delightful.
Paresh Rawal – Not very funny like we usually know him as. The only scene where I genuinely loved his acting was the moment he realizes that his son is dead. Wo emotion, wo expression bahaut tagda tha.
Nawazuddin Sidiqui – I had mixed feelings. He was okay in the first half, the cave scene which is also in the trailer was decent for me, not very funny. towards the end, when he is free, waha thoda zyada funny lage. He handled his crazy character and punchlines very well.
Geeta Agarwal Sharma – She played Ayushmann’s mother. She was great in every scene.
Faisal Malik – He was decent, could have been great. But there was not much written for him. Better utilize karna chahiye tha.
Cameos
I’ll just list the cameos here, then go in detail in the upcoming sections.
Nora Fatehi – Dancer and Vampire
Malaika Arora – Dancer in song Poison Baby
Amar Kaushik – director of Stree, Stree 2 and Bhediya, jinko apni filmo ke gaano mein cameo karne ka shauk hai. Thamma unki film nahi hai par Poison Baby song mein cameo kiya fir bhi. Apne universe (MHCU) ke Stan Lee banna chahte hain shayad.
Sathyaraj – He plays Elvis Karim Prabhakar. Baki duniya ko toh ullu banate rehte hain, ek number ke fraud hain, lekin inko supernatural duniya ki saar knowledge hai. Munjhya ke time bhi he was the one who explained everything. Then unko Bhediya ki bhi information hai, Betaals ki bhi. Accha character develop ho gaya iss movie mein inka.
Varun Dhawan – Bhaskar the Bhediya. Kya upgrade kiya hai bhai. Aage karte hain baat iski detail mein.
Abhishek Banerjee – Kya cheering hui thi iske ane pe. The best comedic parts were his. Shows he is a great actor and his character’s wriring is also very strong.
Universe Building
MHCU is the best in universe building and there is no doubt about it. There is no universe currently in India that is so well inter-connected. It is not just mere camoes of actors in each other’s films, the character’s are actually connected or affted by each other.
Let’s discuss in detail –
Geography – Sathyaraj, who was seen in Munjya (Maharashta), comes to Delhi. When Paresh Rawal sees him on TV, waha likha tha ‘Now in Delhi’. So they are taking care of geography as well. Bhaskar Delhi se hai. Jana, jo Chanderi se hai, wo Bhaskar ke pas gaya tha IAS ki padhai karne. Alok bhi Delhi se hai. So now we know what is happening where. Vishanu (Bhediya) wala jungle Arunanchal Pradesh mein hai, aur Betaal (Thamma) wala jungle pahado mein kahi hai.
Sathyaraj/Elvis is in Delhi, so Paresh Rawal takes Alok to meet him. Now Sathyraj meets Betaal.
Jana – is in Delhi with Bhaskar. Bhaskar is in problem, so he meets Sathyaraj. Ab Jana/Bhaskar ki problem Betaal se solve hogi, so Elvis sends Jana/Bhaskar to go after Alok/Betaal.
Nora Fatehi is the same character as seen in Stree (Kamariya Song). She was and still is a dancer. Faisal Malik even calls her ‘Chanderi Ki Rani.’
Bhediya – They connected the story to Stree 2. In the battle with Sarkata, Bhediya was injured. Now he cannot fully turn into Bhediya. So he needs few drops of blood of Betaal. Kya sahi connection banaya hai na. And when Sathyaraj says Betaals are extinct, he says that no there are here in Delhi, connecting to the end scene of Stree 2. See how the stroies are connecting?
Thamma – Ayushmann has now become Thamma, the Betaal with a beating heart. But in order to beat the upcoming threats, he needs to be stronger, and to do that, he needs the blood of a bhediya. Kya sahi setup kiya hai bhai Vampire vs Werewolf ko MHCU context mein. In the end, Bhediya visits the hidden village of Betaals. Abhi majja ayega na bhidu!
Sarkata – Till now, Sarkata has been the strongest villain in MHCU. Usko harane ke liye 4 log lag gaye – Stree, Shraddha (jo bhi uska naam hai), Bhediya and Vicky ka Pyaar. Hume laga ki finally kisi tarah usko ara diya. Par ye toh wapas aa gaya. Aage ke section mein aur baat karte hain.
So now if anyone disagrees with the fact that MHCU is currently the best Universe in India, show them this section of the review and ask them itni detailing aur kaunsa universe de raha hai.
Betaal vs Bhediya
Ohh bhai.. Phod Dala is an understatement.
First of all the reason of their meetup was setup really well. Jo baki universe wale nahi kar pate sahi se. Conflict ka reason bhi accha tha, ek dusre ko taunt karte hain dono mast. And then jo upgrade hota hai Bhediya! Bhai….. kya sahi transformation dikhaya. Ek drop ne ye kar diya toh socho ek pint se kya ho jayega.
Loved their battle, it was so well done. Full paisa vasool.
Ending was good too, apni hi reflection dekh ke darr jata hai, kyuki kabhi aise dekha nahi tha na khud ko. This gives Alok time to escape, as he was no match for the upgraded Bhediya. Bhaskar finally comes back to his human form, with the iconic Jungle book theme (jo Bhediya mein bhi use ki thi), Jungle Jungle Baat chali Hai Pata Chala Hai, Chaddi Pahen Ke Phool Khilla Hai, Phool Khila Hai.
Par Aditya Sarpotdar sir, ek baat batao, jab wo kapdo ki dukaan mein tha toh nanga kyu bahar jata hai? Wahi se kuch utha leta na. Ya toh kapdo ki dukaan na dikhate, ya nanga na bhejte. Not complaining, but iska answer chahiye boss.
Comedy
Ab dekho expectations toh badh gayi hain, par uss level ka deliver nahi kiya. Comedy was decent for me, which could have been better.
One thing they lacked was funny characters. Aap dekho Stree and Stree 2 zyada funny isliye hain kyuki characters hi pagal hain unke. Bittu, Vicky, Jana and Rudra Bhaiya. Ek se ek muhfat log jo normal baat kar hi nahi sakte, muh kholenge toh toh kuch ulta hi bolenge, and that creates the comedy.
Thamma mein aisa koi character tha hi nahi. alok ka ek dost hona chahiye tha. Ya Faisal Malik ka character, Inspector PK Yadav thode waise hote. Paresh Rawal was wasted. Thamma lacked such crazy characters.
I’m pretty sure Jana ko dekhte hi sabka mood accha ho gaya hoga. His comedy was the peak in the film. Kyuki character hi waisa hai na. Samajhdar aur buddhu dono hai ek sath. This is the best example to understand that if Horror-Comedy is the genre then we need such characters for the comedy.
Pop Culture and Meta Jokes
Trailer ke baad kaafi log naraz hue the ki memes se comedy kyu kar rahe ho. Well dekho, popculture ko comedy ke liye ya bas kisi scene ke liye use karna normal baat hai, Hollywood bhi karta hai aur MCU mein bhi bahaut references hain. So it’s not right to just diss it on surface level.
But I understand the criticism, ki bas use mat karo, joke accha bhi toh lagna chahiye. Jaise Rajkummar Rao ne jab stree 2 mein Baby Calm Down gaya tha toh kitna funny tha wo. But here Lappu Sa Alok did not work.
They used ‘Damin Gurr’ in trailer which looked off and forced. But movie mein waisa nahi tha. When Jana says ki Bhaskar pura transform nahi ho pa raha, bas Damien Gurr karke reh jata hai. It made sense and did not feel like a gimmick. Same with Nawaz when he says Kya Betaar Banega Re Tu.
Why is this normal you ask? Coz hum bhi toh waise hi baat karte hain. Apas mein, comments mein, ek dusre ko baato baato mein wahi memes ki lines bolte hain jaha bhi fit hota hai. So movie character are alos shown like normal people only and sometimes they talk like that. But haan karo toh theek se karo, force mat karo.
Meta Jokes
When Jana meets Alok, he says, “Arre Bittu, Tu Yaha?” Aparshakti and Ayushmann dono bhai ek hi universe mein, and shakal bhi thodi milti hai, sahi khel gaya yaha.
When Paresh Rawal comes around and accepts Alok as Betaal, he encourages him to go and save Tadaka, saying, “Ayushmaan bhava.” Again, a nice meta touch.
World Building
Betaals ka legend and origin accha kiya inhone. Raktbeej se conenct kiya, which was nice. Alexander ke time se leke pre-independence era aur fir aaj ka time, sab connect kiya.
Betaals, khoon pite hain lekin insaan ka nahi. Insaan ka khoon pina is a sin, but if you do it you will be stronger.
Betaal jhuth nahi bol sakte. Bolenge toh daant dikh jayenge. Aur ek kuch bolte hain jo bolte hi dusre betaal ko respond karna padta hai fangs dikha ke. Wo term mujhe yaad nahi par wo accha funny, touch tha.
Not talking about the Universe part here, wo upar kar chuke. Thamma as a new film ka world accha banaya hai. Stree, Munjya, Bhediya, sabka apna world hai. Lekin sab worlds parallelly exist karte hain aur isliye ye Universe hai.
Injustice League
Hum hamesha sochte hain ki koi bada villain ayega Thanos jaisa toh saare heroes mil ke ladenge. Avengers ya Justice League jaise. Lekin ye idea villains ko toh aa sakta hai. Jaise Injustice League ya Sinister Six. Wahi hua iss bar. Sarkata is back, baby.
So MHCU ka sabse khatarnaak villain is back. Sarkata rescued Yakshasan (Nawaz) and took him with him. Now we don’t know if that is Akshay Kumar or Chandrabhan (original Sarkata).
Coz in the end of Stree 2, Sarkata dissolves in Lava, assumed dead. Akshay Kumar was the decendant of Chandrabhan. In the end, a majoc lota apprears,containing the Lava in which Sarkata died. Askahy Kumar consumes the lota and gets his powers. Utna toh clear hai.
Lekin Thamma ke end mein Akshay Kumar nahi Sarkata ata hai, matlab Chandrabhan, with his head in his hand. Also he is covered in Lava, like a Lava Monster. So I feel it is not Akshay Kumar, but Chandrabhan. Ab koi keh sakta hai ki dono combine ho gaye but still his head was in his hand. So I don’t think combine hue.
We still have the question ki who collected the Lava from that mystical place and delivered it to Akshay Kumar. Yes, it can be Munjya, but why? Wo toh Chetukwadi ka tha, toh reason explain karna padega. ki kaun kyu, kaise. Same goes for Sarkata, how and why he went to Yakshasan.
Music
Mere kaam pakk gaye sunn sunn ke, ki Thamma mein 3 gaane hain teen gaane hain, 3 item number hai, item number universe, etc.
I did not react to any of them. I know atleast 1 song toh movie ke end mein hoga, sab movies mein the ab tak and Stree 2 mein toh 2 the end mein. Mujhe laga tha Poison Baby hoga end mein, par Tum Mere Na Huye nikla.
The songs were intgrated well, they became part of the story. But they were not impactful at all. Aaj Ki Raat ka story wise build up bhi accha tha aur song bhi khud mein bahaut accha tha. Yaha aisa laga bas meaning fit karne ki koshish ki hai. Dilbar ki Aankhon ka was still good to hear, but lost impact. Poison Baby bilkul accha nahi laga.
BGM
I’m in love with Rahein Na Rahein Hum. Ek toh singer ko bhi live sunn liya Delhi mein jab Thamma ki team ayi thi Sneak Peak ke liye. The other thing is that inhone female verison bhi use kiya hai film mein. With some different renditions where the lyrics fit the situation perfectly. Wo saare versions please release karna Maddock Films.
There were some background score having Hindi-Sanskrit words, like we got in Brahmastra and Kalki 2898 AD. Wo kuch alag aur acche lag rahe the. But they were not utilized well. Highlight hoke nahi feel hote wo.
Similarly there was some other BGM which felt like that of fantasy love theme, played during Ayushmann-Rashmika scenes. Again they were not utilsed well. Editing was a big choppy in that sense. The experience could have been elevated a lot more.
Acch ek aur cheez. Bhediya vs Vampire fight ke time bhi ek BGM tha. Bhediya song banaya hai unhone, acche lyrics the uske, abhi yaad nahi bas. I hope Maddock releases that as well.
Thamma Ka Vfx
Not good at all. While I understad that the budget of MHCU is not too big as compared to other big star tentpole films, but Stree 2 and Chhava se kamaya hai na. And iss Universe se bhi aage kamaoge accha. Toh uske liye invest karna hoga na.
While Bhediya upgrade was fantastic, you can see that while the still shots were still fine, the movements were somewhat not realistic. Fur, body, muscles, when everything moves, our eyes can easily make out when somehting is off.
It’s not like every vfx shot was bad. But many were. Like then the vampires jump, their movements look very fake. Jaise subject ko roto karke uska straight line track set kar diya aur speed up kar diya. Sarkata bhi. end mein off lag raha tha, jaise game se nikal kar aya ho.
Stree 2 mein bhi perfect nahi tha vfx end battle mein but it was still better than this. Here it looked like bare minimum work was done. Nothing impressive in terms of vfx, other than Bhediya.
With the growing craze of the MHCU and box office collection too, Maddock Films needs to focus on the quality of Vfx going forward.
Threat Level
Kisi bhi story ka ek basic sctructure hota hai. Ek hero/protagonist hota hai jiske kandhe pe story chalti hai. Story mein ek journey hoti hai. Uss journey mein ek stopping force hota hai jisko villain/antagonist kehte hain. Ye Hero ke raste mein conflicts paida akrta hai, journey ko mushkil banata hai. End mein hero villain ko maar deta hai and journey khatam hoti hai, isko kehte hain resolution. Kaisi bhi kahani ho ye ek basic structure hota hai.
Villain humesha ek person ho zaruri nahi. The Day After Tomorrow mein climate villaon tha. 12th fail mein exam villain tha. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara mein unka darr villain tha. Villain word hum use kar lete hain lekin at core the word conflict fits better. Kisi bhi movie mein, jitna bada conflict, utna hero mushkil se wo overcome karta hai utna maza ata hai.
Also, when superhero/fantasy/action type movies are there, I feel conflict se jo threat paida hota hai wo bahaut important hota hai. ‘Duniya kahatam ho jaygi’ bol dene se nahi hota. Feel karao ki statkes kya hai, threat level kya hai. Audience ko wo darr feel karna chahiye jo uss film ka character uss time feel karta hai. Jaise Sarkata ko hara hi nahi pa rahe the, sab aa gaye fir bhi he was winning.
Nawaz as Yakshasa was not a threat at all. Look bhi accha nahi tha. Puri movie mein kuch khas nahi kiya. Last mein hero and villain amne-samne hain, toh sabko pata hai fight hogi hero jeet jayega. Betaal jiske dil mein dhadkan hogi wo Thamma banega, ye bhi pata tha, bachpan se filmein dekhte aa rahe hain. Goal bhi simple tha villain ‘duniya pe raaj karna’. Stakes kabhi badhte hi nahi hain, threat level upar jata hi nahi hai. This was a big mistake in writing.
Writing and Direction
While I said so many postive things above, you must have seen that the reaction of people is not as great as Stree 2. Reason yahi hai ki itn sab hone ke baad bhi the movie fails to leave an impact. Apart from some fault in editing and underutilization of music, the biggest flaw is the writing.
One is the lack of comic characters, as explained previously. Second is the intensity of stakes and threat level from the villain. And most importantly is the simple structure of linear storytelling.
The first half of Thamma, though it was nice, took too much time setting up everything. The story was not moving forward too much in the first half, and the second half was packed with everything. Think of it, every major event, every universe connection and cameos happen after Alok becomes Betaal, which is in the second half. The first half majorly focuses on the love story.
What Could/Should Have Been Done
Alok needed to be a vampire in the first half itself. Many portions of Paresh Rawal could have been eliminated. Alok needed to have a best friend for the comic scenes. Imagine Alok, his friend, his father and the Inspector all having ridiculous conversations just like the gang in Stree. Alok going alone to fight was still okay.
There needed to be a bigger goal of Nawaz. Something so dark that the head of the Betaals was scared of. There needed to be something brewing up parallely. Like kuch ho raha hai, koi aa raha hai, koi nakshatra ka samay ane wala hai, something that is setting things in motion.
Soch ke dekho. Pura batane ki zarurat nahi thi, lekin isse depth aa jati, story mein. Waise bhi kuch toh ho hi raha hai na, Sarkata aa gaya, Akshay Kumar bhi kuch kar raha hai, Bhediya strong hona chahta hai, Thamm ko bhi strong hona padega, Shakti Shalini aa rahi hai, so kuch hone laga hai duniya mein. Thoda sa parallel kuch dal dete na, toh impact bahaut padh jata, aur Yakshasan ka bhi threat level badh jata. Alok first half mein hi vampire ban jata toh second half ke conflict pe focus kar pate.
Ek Yakshasan ki backstory ho sakti thi. Jaise kisi se pyaar karta tha usko revive karna chahta tha, uski maut. kebaad pagal sa ho gaya tha comedy karne laga tha. Thoda cliche hai, lekin kuch na hone se toh better hi hai.
Thoooooda sa hi sochna tha. Movie ka impact bahaut badh jata.
Shakti Shalini
Ek toh ye alag se nahi ana chahiye tha, Thamma ke end mein hi hona chahiye tha credit se pehle. Bhale Tum Mere Na Huye song ke baad ata.
Upar jaise bataya maine ki parallel kuch chal raha hota, kuch brew ho raha hota, aisa dikhate film mein. Fir Shakti Shalini ka annoucnement karte. Impact badh jata na?
I went to watch Thamma in PVR Imax and mujhe ek bhi trailer ya teaser nahi dikhaya. Only ads. Bahaut logon ne bola ki unko Shakti Shalini ka announcement nahi dikhaya. So now you understand why it needed to be part of the film.
Verdict
It is definitely a theatre watch. Miss toh mat karna main bolunga, maza ata hai bhai. Bhare hue theatre mein jana jisse community experience ka maza aye. It’s not bad at all, its just not perfect. Nothing is boring or cringe, its just not perfect. First have is lovely in terms of love story, and second have has universe buildup and action.
OCD Rating – ⭐⭐⭐
I’m holding back on half a star for Thamma because I expect more. MHCU is great, Thamma is lovely, but ye minor mistakes se impact mein major difference aa jata hai. Ab Best se neeche kuch nahi chalega guys, we need to level up.
Let me know in the comments what you feel about the trailer.
Author: Ishan Jain
Cast – Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna, Paresh Rawal, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Faisal Malik, Sathyaraj, and others.
Director – Aditya Sarpotdar
Release – 21 October 2025
Produced by – Amar Kaushik, Dinesh Vijan
Studio – Maddock Films
Also check out: Stree 2 Movie Review
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