The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest: A Film Lost in Its Own Forest

Every so often a film arrives with all the right ingredients and none of the cooking skill. The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest, directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra and produced by Ekta Kapoor, is one of those. On paper it is an intriguing proposition: a sacred forest, a mysterious goddess, Chhath Puja, a couple desperate to have a child, and a city man returning to his roots. The central figure is Rishi, played by Sidharth Malhotra, an engineer from Devanchal who lives in Mumbai with his wife Mamta, played by Tamannaah Bhatia. He is a rationalist who prefers logic to faith, and the story is built on the collision between his scepticism and a force he cannot explain. It is a good idea, and the film’s opening stretch sustains some curiosity. But curiosity is not the same as conviction, and The Vvaan never quite makes the leap from an interesting premise to a gripping film.

The trouble is that the screenplay keeps adding to the pot without tending to it. Folklore, romance, horror, comedy and devotional drama all jostle for space, and none is given room to breathe. One review put it aptly: the film keeps adding ingredients until you can barely taste the original dish. The scares are the weakest link. The atmosphere rarely develops an identity of its own, and the film falls back on supernatural-genre devices we have seen countless times. For a film set in a haunted, sacred forest, it is remarkable how rarely you feel immersed in that forest. The second half grows formulaic, and the story loses its grip on the audience just when it should be tightening.

Then there is the comedy, which is where Manish Paul comes in. Paul is a gifted, energetic performer, and the film clearly leans on him to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, his humour falls flat here. Some reviewers found his character endearing, but to my eye he is playing another variation of the persona he has been associated with for years, and the jokes rarely land. The writing gives him little to work with, and the laughs feel mechanical rather than spontaneous. A film that mixes the spooky and the silly needs the comedy to land, because it is meant to be the pressure valve. Here it merely adds to the sense of a film unsure of its own tone.

Sidharth Malhotra, who carries the film as Rishi, is stiff and average. The role demands a man whose certainties are slowly shaken, someone who moves from mockery to unease to something like awe. Sidharth delivers the beats but not the transformation. His expressions barely register the fear or wonder the story asks for, and the emotional arc feels more announced than felt. He is a capable actor who has done better work, and the problem is not effort but a lack of texture. As one critic observed, performances can only rise to the level of direction, and the direction here extracts little from its cast. Across the board, the acting is competent and unremarkable. Sunil Grover, cast against type in a villainous role, tries hard but is let down by thin writing. Anup Soni and Shweta Tiwari add a little weight but are not given enough to do.

The climax, sadly, is just as average. A film this layered needed a finale that gathered up its threads and delivered a jolt of fear, faith or catharsis. Instead the final act feels hurried and conventional, resolving matters with a familiarity that neither surprises nor moves. By the time the credits roll, you are not angry, merely indifferent, and indifference is perhaps the harshest verdict a film can earn.

And yet the film is not without its pleasures. The Chhath Puja sequence is easily its finest stretch. The rituals, atmosphere and celebrations add a strong cultural touch and stand out as one of its better portions. The “Chhathi Maiya” song, released ahead of the film, captures the devotional warmth and the Bihar-Purvanchal flavour that the rest of the film only gestures towards. And then there is Tamannaah Bhatia, who looks beautiful and lights up the screen every time she appears, particularly in the song. She does what she can with a role that deserved more depth.

In the end, The Vvaan is an average film with average performances, a handful of bright spots and a premise that promised far more than it delivered. It is watchable, occasionally pretty, and quickly forgotten. If you go, go for the Chhath Puja song and for Tamannaah. Just don’t expect the forest to cast any real spell.