“The Vvaan” wants to be a legend. It wants to be a horror story. It wants to be a hero’s tale. It can’t settle on one. That’s the problem. Deepak Kumar Mishra directs Arunabh Kumar’s script, and the film spends its 136 minutes trying to hold three ideas together at once: a rational man, a forbidden forest, a divine goddess, and a village under threat. Only some of that works.
The Forest and the Goddess
The central figure is Rishi, played by Sidharth Malhotra — a rational man who breaks his family’s rules about the ancestral forest and awakens Mamta, played by Tamannaah Bhatia. The film sells this with genuine dread. The forest feels real, and the goddess carries a weight that makes the supernatural scenes land more than they should. Malhotra plays Rishi with a steady, composed presence that holds the early scenes together. Bhatia’s Mamta is a force, and their scenes together carry the film’s best stretches.
The Villain Track Falls Short
The villain, Ved Prakash (VP), played by Maniesh Paul, is a weak link. The script gives him a reason for being evil, but it never commits fully to making him a real threat beyond being a plot device. The film’s promise is most visible in its devotion and mythology, where the story blends religion and horror with real skill. The horror tones are used well, and the devotion scenes hit their mark. It’s only in the second half, when the writing gets messy and the villain’s track grows thin, that the film loses its footing.
Supporting Cast and Songs
Sunil Grover plays Deepak, Shweta Tiwari plays Sushila, and Anup Soni plays Shashi Bhaiya. They fill out the village, and they mostly do their job without drawing attention away from the main plot. The supporting cast works best when they’re being threatened or saved, less so when they’re given room to act. The film is rated NR, which makes sense for a story this dark and mythic in tone.
A Story With More Strength Than Shape
The script’s best moments come in the first half, where the forest and Mamta are introduced with real dread. The second half, where the hero’s rise and the village’s defense take over, is where the film loses its shape. The villain’s track is thin, the pacing grows messy, and the story loses its footing. The film’s execution falls short.
Here’s how the two halves compare:
| Part | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| First Half | Dread, mythology, a strong Mamta | None |
| Second Half | Hero’s rise, village defense | Messy pacing, weak villain, thin plot |
Verdict
“The Vvaan” is a film with genuine promise that doesn’t fully deliver. The setup is strong, the lead performances carry weight, and the devotion and horror blend has real skill. The villain’s track, the pacing, and the messy second half let it down. This is a film worth seeing for its best stretches — its dread, its mythology, its lead performances — even as its back half drags. The audience score sits at 9.4 out of 10 from 8 votes on TMDB, which suggests the promise is visible to those who’ve seen it.
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