The Vvaan Review: Sidharth Malhotra’s Folk Thriller Loses Its Mystery
The Vvaan: Force of the Forest blends grief, folklore and supernatural mystery, but an overcrowded screenplay and uneven execution dilute its strongest ideas.
The Vvaan: Force of the Forest follows Rishi and Mamta, a grieving couple who return to their ancestral village during Chhath Puja while dealing with an old family land dispute. Their personal pain soon collides with a centuries-old forest legend involving Van Devi, supernatural forces and a forbidden forest that villagers are warned never to enter after sunset.
The film has an intriguing emotional setup. Rishi, once a believer in Van Devi, has become a rationalist after losing his unborn child. When he enters the forest and returns unharmed, villagers begin to believe he could be the rightful descendant of the king protected by the goddess. His journey from disbelief towards the supernatural could have provided the film with a strong emotional core.
Instead, the story keeps adding layers. A local figure, Deepak, wants development work in the area, while villagers fear disturbing the forest. His quest for an ancient bracelet eventually leads to darker supernatural forces and turns the folk thriller into a conventional good-versus-evil battle.
Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia bring sincerity to their roles, while Sunil Grover attempts a darker character. The Chhath sequences offer some of the film’s strongest atmosphere, but uneven VFX and an overworked background score reduce the impact of the forest setting.
The biggest issue is the screenplay, which explains too much and packs in too many ideas. There is a compelling folk tale somewhere inside The Vvaan, but the film keeps adding twists until the original mystery gets buried. Basically, the forest had secrets; the screenplay had even more.
