Bou Buttu Bhuta - Goat thief

Bou Buttu Bhuta

is a Odiya horror film. Bou means mother, Buttu is a name, and Bhuta means ghost. I can’t really mention the actors because I don’t know any of them. So let’s directly go into the movie.

These three names are introduced as separate character introduction chapters, all interlinked with each other. This is actually a smart move. It doesn’t let us feel like we are watching a movie in a different language. Instead, it keeps our focus fully inside the story. In the first chapter, Bou, we clearly understand who Ratnamala is, what kind of person she is, and how far she is willing to go. Only after giving us that clarity does the Bou chapter end. Then the next chapter continues directly from that scene. But there is a small chance of confusion here. We might think Bou is the title of the film. I definitely had that thought. But when the second chapter title appears, we understand, Oh, these are episode titles. Finally, the third episode’s ending and title are revealed together in an interval-like moment.

For me, Bou felt exactly like the Pidaari character from my novel Pidaari. Buttu felt like Aadhi. This shocked me a lot. Even though the story and setting are totally different, the core of these two characters felt the same. Because of that, this movie became a very new experience for me. It gave me a strange pride too, that someone else somewhere thought in a similar way, and maybe my writing was actually worth something! Okay, enough self praise. Let’s go back to the story.

Ratnamala is Buttu’s mother, the Bou. She is a ghost exorcist. There are some disagreements between her and her son. Because of that, we start feeling irritated with Buttu. This irritation comes only in the mother son scenes. When Buttu roams around the village alone, that irritation disappears. The filmmakers have clearly put effort into designing these scenes carefully. Even though Ratnamala is a mother character, the entire story rests on her shoulders. No matter who is shown as hero or heroine, Ratnamala is the real hero and heroine of this film. That’s why we automatically watch her with a sense of respect. Buttu, on the other hand, doesn’t care about his mother or his family situation. He just wanders around carelessly. But that attitude lasts only up to a point. After that, everything shifts to a completely different level.

Ratnamala is shown in two phases, young age and old age. My biggest doubt was: how are both versions so perfectly similar? It was really shocking. Did they use heavy makeup for the older version like Indian movie’s Suganya's look, or did they cast a real mother and daughter? Either way, it was surprising. There is also another young female character in the movie. But she remains only as a young character till the end. At some point, it even made me wonder if she was Ratnamala’s school time version. I don’t know if only I felt this way or others too.

Buttu, meanwhile, mostly acts using just different eye movements and expressions. It made me wonder whether this level of acting was done only because the story required it, or if this is how he generally performs. To understand that, I feel like I need to watch his other movies. But overall, it really made me want to say, Please act a little more, boss. Everyone else the heroine, the friend, the villain, the side villain all of them perform really well. So why only you? Especially that thin bodied woman who bites her tongue and spits, even though she appears only for a few seconds, her aggression is so powerful. There is also a romantic couple who deliver a very strong performance.

Even though this is a horror movie, after finishing it, we don’t really feel like we watched a horror film. While watching, we do feel fear, surprise, and shock. But once it’s over, nothing strongly stays in our mind. The main reason for that is Buttu’s lethargic, this is enough for this kind of performance. Apart from that, the movie is actually good. The songs and dances give a strong feeling like watching a Tamil movie dubbed into Odiya. Even the dance choreography made me think of Raju Sundaram.

You can watch it once. It’s okay. Give it a try. See you in the next post!