Bulbbul takes us back to the India of the 19th century—where young girls were married to older men, the Bengali high class were to maintain their reputation and secrets maintained behind the tall halls, and folklore was much believed in.

Like its intriguing protagonist, there's more to Bulbbul, than meets the eye.

Bulbbul is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language period horror film written and directed by Anvita Dutt.

The plot of the film. The film opens with a five-year-old girl Bulbbul (Tripti Dimri) getting married to a fully grown adult Bade Thakur, Indranil (Rahul Bose) in the Bengal presidency of 1881.

Dutt was drawn to a time almost a century ago because she wanted Bulbbul to feel unearthly; 'a world that would have mysticism and myths as an everyday part of the fabric,' she says.

The most striking quality about Bulbbul is Siddharth Dewan's cinematography and Meenal Agarwal's imposing production design, both blending seamlessly to create a world that seems to rest at the intersection of reality and fantasy.

Bulbbul is a heart wrenching tale of the wrongs that women have been subjected to—the assault, sexual abuse and the domestic violence.

Tracing back, we see Satyajit Ray's Charulata—a young bride's lonesome life at home as her husband goes about his publishing house, how she busies herself, and also a trace of Rabindranath Tagore's Chokher Bali—with the identical daak naam refer to Bodo Bou, thaku moshai, Binodini didi and some what similar relationships among the brothers and their wives, this film strongly narrates a similar tale of love, unjust, evil and power.

Bulbbul takes us back to the India of the 19th century—where young girls were married to older men, the Bengali high class were to maintain their reputation and secrets maintained behind the tall halls, and folklore was much believed in.

The mansions are decorated, the brides dressed up from head to toe, the long black hair and the aura of a thakurian.

The sound of payal and the classic moonlit angan with a center located fountain as the meeting point.

The high class thakur, draping their shawl, strongly identifying to London, busy with their own business, and often married to wives, sitting idly, trapped in their haveli.

The name, Bulbbul is often coupled with innocence of the bird and the mythology used it for princesses shut away in remote castles.

Bulbbul's (Tripti Dimri) wedding brings her and Satya (Avinash Tiwary) together, who are of the same age.

They narrate and weave stories together, and he helps her settle into her new house, a seven-year old's sasural.

The two become friends—playing around, climbing trees in the forest, they later develop a love interest.

Bulbbul's husband, Indranil, eldest Thakur (Rahul Bose) is powerful, strict and evil, he is the patriarch of the house—scared to lose control.

He is shown as the one who everyone obeys, and is never questioned neither obstructed.

The others are secondary to him, his decisions are final and his anger is destructive.

He is entitled to his position and represents the ultimate evil patriarchal figure.

He has a mentally retarded twin brother (also Rahul Bose), who is to be kept in control, and is yet entitled to his status.

The doctor is the safe haven of the violated Bulbbul, the one that knows the evils.

He helps her revenge the wrong, he aids her empowerment.

There are times when women become their own enemy and other times when they pledge to protect their own.

Binodini (Paoli Dam) is the representation of the woman succumbed to patriarchal structure of society and has adjusted to the circumstances to be who she is today.

Her tragedy too is of violence and misery—unfulfilled promises and tied to a man who she never was able to called her beloved.

Binodini didi plays a massive role in Bulbbul's destruction and also her an aid to her dying soul.

The characters are strong and have their own role to play.

This is a saga of love but more of the violence that women have been subjected to over the years.

The imagery is powerful and traumatizing.

Thakur moshai heinously wounds his wife's feet for a suspicious romance and the trauma returns when the mentally disabled twin rapes the life out of Bulbbul.

The dark ambiance and the slow and steady camera is able to wrench the heart for the woman.

The elongated rape sequence lets the suffering settle in.

It is often said that a woman has nothing to lose once her honor is stolen.

Here too, she now lives for revenge and to protect her own sex.

The film depicts who women have been a subject to monstrous men, treated as objects and traded as dolls.

The ritual of child marriage and the consequences it brings along.

How women have been left alone to survive the wrongs, mostly silently.

The metaphor of the doll is stretched with the twin's constant plea to play with him and the eventual parallel of her rape with the doll lying lifeless of the floor.

The pain in Bulbbul's smile is evidently hollow, and the open hair has often metaphoric with power, or perhaps evil power.

Red, the color of love and blood,the film starts with a red sky, the plague that has dawn the forest and town,the 'chudail' is on a hunt but never did the men know that she killed the evil, not the innocent.