The Hindi film industry is currently gripped by its horror-comedy obsession. Stree, Stree 2, Munjya, and Bhediya — most notably from Maddock Productions — established the trend. But what started as innovation has now decayed into pure repetition. The trailer of Thamma stands as the most glaring and unfortunate reminder that when a formula is milked dry, all that remains is mediocrity.
From its opening frame, Thamma’s trailer reeks of déjà vu. It neither excites nor intrigues — it simply exhausts you with a sense of “been there, seen that.” Ayushmann Khurrana, the supposed star attraction, delivers a performance that feels like a pale imitation of Stree’s universe. His acting recalls Rajkummar Rao so vividly that it borders on mimicry. To make matters worse, flashes of Abhishek Banerjee’s Janaa creep into his portrayal, leaving one to wonder if originality has been deliberately abandoned.
What unfolds is not a horror-comedy, but an unintentional parody. The situation worsens when Nawazuddin Siddiqui — an actor known for depth — is reduced to an embarrassing caricature, hamming through over-the-top antics and double-entendre dialogues that fail to raise even a smirk. Instead of elevating the material, he drags it further into cringe territory.
The trailer even dares to invoke Betaal from the iconic Vikram Aur Betaal (1985) series — a classic etched in television history. But the comparison is disastrous. Where Vikram Aur Betaal was timeless, Thamma looks disposable. It is the difference between a diamond that gleams through generations and a blunt stone that exists only to cause damage.
Rashmika Mandanna, billed as a key presence, comes across not as the narrative’s backbone but as a tokenized glamour piece — more “item girl” than integral character. This undercuts even the pretense of meaningful storytelling.
Technically, the trailer offers no redemption. The editing is clumsy, the VFX uninspired, and the overall craft lifeless. But the root problem lies deeper: no amount of polish can salvage a story that is already stale.
The industry has fallen into a dangerous rut. Just as the biopic wave once flooded cinema screens after a single success, horror comedies are now being churned out mechanically, with no regard for freshness or originality. The machine has already squeezed every drop of juice out of this sugarcane. With Thamma, what the audience is being served are the dry, tasteless peels.
If the trailer is this unbearable, the film itself promises nothing less than a full-blown disaster.