Bhay Movie Review

Story: Gokul Joshi is a competent worker but is afraid of a lot of things, including living in high rises and travelling by Mumbai’s locals. The only place he feels safe in is his home and that too when the safety chain is in place. But a shocking incident, that Gokul is witness to, turns his life upside down.

Review: The first thing that comes to you mind when you hear the title is that this is either a thriller or a horror story. Well, Bhay is definitely not a horror film (although it comes close to being a horror to endure). This one here tries to be a thriller and fails at that too.

The story, so to say, is that Gokul Joshi (Khandkekar) has a fear of lot of things. At his wife Meera’s (Gondkar) behest, when the two visit a psychiatrist, the psychiatrist explains to Meera that Gokul is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. The condition makes him susceptible to panic attacks and delusions that result into his fear. While the couple tries to get on with their life, Gokul’s world is shattered when he witnesses the killing of a businessman at the hands of the goon Bharat (Sharma). From then on, home is the only place that Gokul finds safe. But his obsession with safety chains remains intact.

Bhay’s biggest drawback is that it tries to squeeze in way too many things into a span of two hours and 10 mins. Expectedly, the film ends up being a weird mish-mash of drama, crime and thrill which yields no entertainment value. The first half goes into bombarding the viewer with Gokul’s mental condition and the second half suddenly switches gears to becoming a crime thriller. However, Bhay fails to establish connect between the two things as well as with the audience.

Khandkekar and Gondkar are known faces but they really don’t add value to this film. Neither do Vineet Sharma as the goon and Satish Rajwade as the cop. Not that they aren’t sincere, but there’s hardly anything they can do to make a difference here.

If you thought your life was complicated, you should definitely watch Bhay. You’ll start to feel happy about yourself. But if your life is sorted, this one’s alright to miss.