'Bhoomi' is the new yardstick for worst sort of cringe in cinema

Can a film be wrong in every possible way? Not just the technical aspects such as music, cinematography or the story, but also the concept, characterisation, the storytelling, dialogues, core idea and the facts or back ground the film claims are true. Sandalwood remakes are often trolled in Tamil Nadu. Even recently, during the lockdown, some people (unemployed) with high speed internet trolled remade Sandalwood films from Tamil. This was unnecessary when there are quite a large number of poor quality Kollywood films.

‘Bhoomi’ seems to be a real time action thriller that takes a path of a documentary via science fiction but ends up as a fantasy.

This film is a by product of sheer internet addiction to rumours spread on social media. The inability to distinguish between facts and fake news online would result in a film like ‘Bhoomi’. The film falls short in film-making aspects like narration, portrayal of scenes, the facts used and most importantly, logic. The scenes stitch together Tik-Tok or vine videos that uses absurd populist notions but showcases poorly-acted montages with nonsensical dialogues.

The film shows an immense number of fake statistics, false information on scientific matters like GM seeds/ produce, agri-produce market, agriculture, industrial growth, government and even bureaucracy or how a trial is conducted in court. The outright ignoring of even the least possible reality or even how things are makes the film a two part fest.

Part-1: Absurd fest

The hero, Boominathan, played by Jayam Ravi, claims he has discovered a ‘tablet’ or a pill that makes human inhale CO2. He even goes to the extent of asserting that a nuclear explosion could be staged in order to harvest the ice frozen in large amounts on the surface of Mars. The gap between reality and ‘Bhoomi’ is so far, it makes the audience cringe.

Thambi Ramaiah, who plays a poor farmer and is affected due to drought, is clearly identified as a character that would be killed as early as his first appearance. The technical team has put in minimal effort in character development.

The heroine is a template Kollywood character, who is dim-witted with no self respect, and whose only role is to run round the protagonist. The comedy track arouses little or no interest. The film takes a turn when Thambi Ramaiah dies by suicide, which takes a huge toll on the protagonist. The film uses dinosaur era-like techniques in order to depict bureaucrats in an unflattering way.

An IAS officer is shown groping random girls while he waits in a car outside a protest site. Most audience would be shocked by this juvenile characterisation and after watching such scenes, one can gauge the perception of reality of the director.

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‘Bhoomi’ then gives a lecture to a Minister of State with no facts, populist rumours, and WhatsApp forward texts — no research has been done.

There are songs that come in between scenes. None of D Imman’s tunes stays with you. The lyrics are a concoction of fake Tamil nationalist pride, fake information that tickles the ‘Tamil’ sentiment of the people. We also come across a scene where Bhoomi attends a trial in NASA! Trials are usually (only) conducted in court world wide but this film changes that as well for its own sake. Not to forget Bhoomi’s invention of a tablet that makes humans take in CO2, his proposal to use nuclear war heads to break the ice underneath the surface of Mars, introduce birds to the atmosphere — claiming it as the first ever for farmers are all fake populist notions. It would be of interest to Tamil nationalist sympathisers. It is indeed painful to see random acts by Bhoomi ostensibly to help people. God save Tamil Nadu and Tamil people!

Part-2: Cringe  Fest

‘Bhoomi’ is voluntarily kidnapped by the villain who happily releases him. Also the court scene makes us cringe. The villain claims he can change the government and threatens to topple the economy. Things unfold in a naïve utopian way.

The hero tries to assemble a huge team in various domains like marketing, finance etc. just by calling out people from a gathering of random people. He then shows some random people calling them out as Indian entrepreneurs and becomes agri-produce supplier of theirs just by saying so. Any person with the least idea of how an organisation works will cringe at these scenes. The film takes a turn when the villain tries to ‘create’ a Bharat Bandh and then Bhoomi tears open hired lorries and trucks to convert them to open trucks, which sells agri-produce.

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There is a twist at the end of the film where imbeciles burn products that they buy from their own money. The film claims this is to show the dislike of ’13 Illuminati families’ that control the whole of India, it seems. At least the crew could have included issues on climate change. To our surprise there is not a single scene showing climate change. The film confuses bureaucratic corruption, government and industrialisation and ends up blaming everyone.

This is the Utopian dream of any Tamil guy/ girl who indulges in reading fake news online or a part of the anti- vaccine brigade, flat earthers, Illuminati believers. It is pathetic to see a grown/ industrial state like Tamil Nadu to continue showing interests in films like ‘Bhoomi’.

‘Bhoomi’ is the new yardstick for the worst sort of cringe in cinema. Any future film on a similar concept will always be compared to ‘Bhoomi’. Thanks to the director for giving us a chance to stay away form certain people: ‘people who like Bhoomi even in the slightest possible way.’