The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest — When Folklore Gets Lost in Its Own Forest

The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest has the ingredients of an intriguing Indian fantasy: a forbidden forest, an ancient goddess, local folklore, a sceptical outsider, and a conflict between modern development and traditional beliefs. On paper, it sounds like the kind of story that could build an atmospheric world where mythology and contemporary life naturally collide. Unfortunately, the finished film rarely finds the confidence or discipline to make those ideas work together.

Sidharth Malhotra plays Rishi, a rational, city-bred engineer who has little patience for superstition. Alongside his wife Mamta, played by Tamannaah Bhatia, he returns to his ancestral village, where an old forest is surrounded by warnings and religious beliefs. Nobody is supposed to enter after sunset, but Rishi's scepticism eventually puts him directly in the path of something he cannot explain.

That basic setup is easily the film's strongest element. There is genuine potential in watching a character who trusts logic being forced to confront a world that refuses to operate according to it. The village setting also gives the film an opportunity to explore faith, nature, family history and the tension between development and preservation.

The problem is that The Vvaan doesn't know how to develop those ideas without repeatedly spelling them out.

The screenplay moves between folklore, supernatural horror, comedy, family drama and devotional fantasy, often without a smooth transition. Scenes that should create suspense are interrupted by humour, while potentially meaningful emotional moments are pushed aside in favour of increasingly loud supernatural spectacle. What begins as a mystery surrounding the forest gradually becomes a fairly conventional battle between good and evil.

Malhotra gives Rishi the necessary seriousness, but the character is never developed enough to make his transformation particularly convincing. Tamannaah fares somewhat better, bringing warmth and sincerity to Mamta, although the script gives her limited opportunities to become more than an emotional component of Rishi's journey. Sunil Grover is another welcome presence, particularly because his more grounded performance contrasts with the film's increasingly exaggerated tone.

Visually, there are moments when the movie comes alive. The forest has an appropriately mysterious atmosphere, and the cinematography makes good use of darkness, foliage and mist. The folklore-inspired sequences also suggest that there was a much more interesting film hiding somewhere inside this production.

Unfortunately, the visual effects are inconsistent. Some supernatural imagery works well enough, while other creatures and digital elements look noticeably artificial. The contrast becomes especially distracting because the film clearly wants to present its mythology on a grand cinematic scale.

The biggest disappointment, however, is the writing. The Vvaan repeatedly introduces ideas that could have given the story greater depth — faith versus rationalism, environmental destruction, generational beliefs and the consequences of disturbing something ancient — but rarely gives any of them enough room to breathe.

Instead, the film keeps explaining itself.

That makes the eventual spiritual awakening feel less like the natural conclusion of Rishi's journey and more like a destination the screenplay has been forcing him toward from the beginning. The devotional elements could have been powerful if they had emerged organically from the characters and culture. Here, they often feel inserted rather than earned.

There are flashes of a better movie throughout The Vvaan. The premise is solid. The setting is promising. The folklore has cinematic potential. Tamannaah and Grover bring some welcome humanity to the proceedings. But those strengths are buried beneath an overextended screenplay, uneven effects, tonal confusion and a story that becomes increasingly predictable as it approaches its climax.

For a film built around the idea of a mysterious forest, The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest spends surprisingly little time allowing that mystery to speak for itself.

It wants to be a modern folk fantasy, a supernatural thriller and a devotional spectacle all at once. The result is a film that has plenty of ambition but very little control over how that ambition reaches the screen.

Rating: 2/5

Do you like it? Let's share it!