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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you have a high tolerance for slow, grainy, and incredibly earnest filmmaking, you might actually like this. If you need your plots to make sense or have a beginning, middle, and end, stay far away.
Honestly, it’s a bit of a relic. It’s for people who like to dig through the bargain bin of history and find something that just feels... human.
Watching Bulbule Punjab is like visiting a relative’s house where they just keep showing you old photos without any context. You start to recognize faces, like Master Dinkar or Zubeida, but you aren't always sure why they are standing in a field or shouting at the sky.
The pacing is, well, let's call it ambitious. There are scenes that linger on a single expression for way too long. Sometimes you’re just watching someone look at a tree, and you start wondering if the camera operator just forgot to say 'cut'.
There's a moment in the second act involving a very poorly placed prop that I’m fairly certain wasn't supposed to be in the frame. It’s right there on the left side of the screen, just poking out from behind a curtain. Nobody acknowledges it. It’s brilliant.
It’s not quite as punchy as Battling Sisters, which had a bit more snap to its dialogue. It lacks the weird, dark charm of Die blaue Maus, too.
Still, it has a weird, sunny disposition. It’s almost impossible to hate, even when the logic completely falls apart during the third musical number. 🍿
It’s a flawed little project. But at least it doesn't feel like a corporate product. It just feels like a bunch of people trying to make a movie and occasionally succeeding by accident. That’s enough for me today. 🎞️
Year
1933
IMDb Rating
—
Editorial
Deciphering the legacy of transgressive cult cinema.
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