From to the recent , the horror-comedies of the Maddock Supernatural Universe have introduced us to various gags and ghouls. The first film, released in 2018, featured ‘Stree’ as its supernatural antagonist - a vengeful female spirit who attacks and abducts men unfortunate enough to turn back and see her face. introduced a mysterious werewolf who murders wrongdoers and even bites Bhasker (Varun Dhawan), transforming him into a werewolf.
However, it turns out that the werewolf was merely protecting its territory, and it was the humans who were truly wicked. This year’s featured a mischievous yet dangerous spirit that kills the protagonist Bittu's (Abhay Verma) grandmother and forces his grandnephew to find his ‘Munni’ for him. In , the terror of ‘Stree’ is replaced by the malevolence of Sarkata, a headless monster with a roaming head, who kidnaps girls who do not adhere to traditional norms.
However, while these supernatural villains are terrifying, the entire Maddock Supernatural Universe shares a common antagonist that is more powerful than any of them. Why? Because it can never be seen, only felt, and in not a single film has it been defeated. What is it, you ask? It’s the feeling that drove Ranbir Kapoor’s character nearly mad and desolate in and , and it’s the reason why many heartbroken youngsters still listen to Arijit Singh’s " .
" It is...
Think hard about each film in this franchise, and you’ll realise there’s a common trend: the love stories in each movie never have a conventional happy ending. Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) falls head-over-heels in love with the mysterious girl, played by Shraddha Kapoor, who could melt him with a simple “Vicky, please!” Yet, while she has a soft spot for him, she primarily uses Vicky and his friends to obtain Stree’s hairlock and then leaves without even revealing her name. Well, at least Vicky learns her name, though we’re not privy to that information.
But this doesn't lessen the disappointment for Vicky when he discovers that his ladylove is a ghost of indeterminate age, making any relationship between them impossible. Even if she tells him, their relationship transcends time and dimension. The other love stories in fare no better.
Both Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) and Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi) have their girlfriends kidnapped by Sarkata, and it’s unclear if they get their happy endings after the rescue. Those girls surely need months of therapy to recover from that trauma. Moreover, we learn more about the tragic backstory of ‘Stree,’ who, in human form, was killed by Chandrabhan (Sarkata’s human form) along with her husband.
So many sad love stories in one film! . A cursed Bhasker finds companionship in the pretty doctor Anika (Kriti Sanon) and begins to develop feelings for her. Too bad she turns out to be the werewolf who bit him.
Things take an even more tragic turn when, in trying to rescue a werewolf Bhasker, the werewolf Anika is grievously injured and seemingly falls to her death after a poignant moment between the two. Another incomplete love story! The teenage Brahmin kid Gotya becomes the malevolent spirit known as Munjya because he couldn’t marry his older crush. His human grandnephew Bittu is in a similar plight, harbouring a crush on his childhood friend Bela (Sharvari Wagh), who is older than him and sees him as a younger brother.
In the end, Munjya is stopped from marrying his ‘Munni’ and is banished back to his tree, while Bittu confesses his feelings for Bela, who sweetly tells him that she prefers his friendship and needs some time on her own. So yeah, shows us two sides of unrequited love—the dangerously obsessive kind and the patient, encompassing one. Even the outlier in the Maddock Supernatural Universe, , sees its two male protagonists, Bawra (Rajkummar Rao) and Kattani (Varun Sharma), lose their possessed crush Roohi (Janhvi Kapoor) in the end, as she chooses to live happily ever after with the spirit within.
So you see, the real villain of the Maddock Supernatural Universe has always been unrequited love. And what’s more, it has never been defeated—not even once. Heartbreaking indeed! To end this feature, we like to share a quote from Christopher Nolan's - "Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.
Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it." Or as Shah Rukh Khan says in , " ." ("The power of one-sided love is something else; unlike other relationships, it's not shared between two people; it belongs to me alone.
").
