…may be about love but disappoints greatly and is not going to appeal to lovers this Valentine’s Day, owing to its amateurish treatment and weak plot.

…despite its appeal and lovability, the film misses to add depth and gravitas to a full-on Asterix Adventure.

Overall, with blatant product placements which include boosting Pattaya tourism, poor humour and garish treatment, the film fails to leave an impress.

Shefali’s direction is noteworthy and the film is worth a watch…

The screen is filled with a colourful palette. The 2D animation though a bit backward given today’s advance digital technology, is visually exciting.

Though amateurish, the film is an exciting escapade for its young audience.

Performances apart, it is the story that is a hackneyed one, oft seen in Bollywood and no attempt has been made to handle it differently either. The script is shoddy and is poorly executed. 

The characters are one-dimensional and lack depth.

The script, written by directed by Nitin Chandra, is well-researched and mounted with passion and attempts to erase the “Bimaru” stigma (an acronym for – Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh), which denotes sick in Hindi. Padded with many misgivings about Bihar, the exposition is verbose which at times sounds too preachy for ones’ liking. Also not being singularly focused and with a few plot-holes, the story seems superficial, convoluted and manufactured. Overall, “Once Upon A Time In Bihar” will appeal only to Biharphiles.

The screenplay is padded up with oft-seen images and scenes in films of this genre, making this film bland. Endless close-ups of artisanal plates of food fussily prepared, frenetic kitchen scenes in which orders are shouted and pans sizzle. And, of course, frequent dish-smashing tantrums and tirades by the master chefs.

Overall, director Rob Letterman’s “Goosebumps”, with some fine nuggets of direction, is a contrived tale, targeting the family audience this Halloween weekend. It is not too scary for children, but not too tame for the adults either.

Humour is forced and the dialogues are shallow, frivolous and lacks class. The classification of the families too, seem grossly mismatched making the entire Pullav hackneyed and difficult to digest.