The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia, opened in theatres on September 25 as a folklore-heavy fantasy about a forbidden forest in Bihar. It is Sidharth's biggest solo Day 1 in years. It is also a film most major reviews describe as confused, tacky, or outright punishing — a gap between ticket sales and story that is getting harder to ignore by the hour.

What is The Vvaan actually trying to be?

On paper, the pitch is a rooted Indian fantasy, not a generic CGI jungle. Engineer Rishi (Sidharth) and his wife Mamta (Tamannaah) return from city life to their ancestral village around Chhath, looking to sell inherited land — in some tellings, to fund IVF. Villagers split between a development lobby that wants a road through the forest and traditionalists who refuse to anger the forest's reigning deity. Rishi has lost faith in the goddess; Mamta hasn't. When he ignores the rule against entering the forest after sunset, the film promises that nature's pact, once broken, will bite back.

Director Deepak Kumar Mishra, known for the grounded series Panchayat, is working from a script by Arunabh Kumar. The supporting cast is stacked for a mass-folklore mix: Sunil Grover as the two-faced Deepak, Anup Soni as Rishi's brother, Shweta Tiwari as the sister-in-law, plus Maniesh Paul and Sulabha Arya. Runtime sits around 2 hours 16–17 minutes. The ingredients are all there. The reviews say they never cook in the same pot.

What are critics actually saying?

The spread is unusually wide, which is itself a tell.

  • Indian Express went nuclear: 0.5 stars, calling the film "pure torture," and arguing it never recovers from an early stretch that includes a racist-colourist gag and a plot that keeps dumping folklore, dark forests, guardian devis and evil spirits without a coherent spine. Sidharth climbing snowy mountains "very Prabhas-like" is cited as the moment sense leaves the chat.
  • The Hindu called it a lopsided eco-thriller with a high-pitched, artificial theme — Sidharth as a "chosen one" in a screenplay that doesn't ask much of him, Tamannaah's emotion reading as Balaji-template, Grover playing it too straight.
  • Rediff landed on "part harmless, part tedious": local Bihar legend and folklore horror mashed against a bombastic Telugu-style supernatural climax, with Grover's twist draining whatever intrigue the red-eyed shrine and wraiths had built.
  • ET Now gave it 1.5/5 and blamed a confused second half, forced comedy, and Mishra chasing a commercial fantasy instead of the Panchayat touch that made his name.
  • ABP Live was more generous at 2.5/5, still arguing the folk-horror gets lost in its own forest.

Social-media reactions are warmer — some X users called it "explosive" or "unpredictable" and praised folklore, BGM (including the Ayi Giri Nandini stotram in the climax) and Grover. That split is real. It does not erase how consistently professional reviews say the film cannot decide if it is a faith story, an eco-warning, a horror, or a mid-air superhero brawl.

Why does the Panchayat director comparison sting?

Because Panchayat proved Mishra can sit with a village, its politics, and people who talk like they live there. The Vvaan keeps announcing those same ingredients — Chhath, land, a goddess, a corrupt custodian — then sprints toward scale. Several reviews say Sidharth never quite belongs to the Bihar setting the film claims, and that Rishi stays an archetype instead of a person. Tamannaah's devotion is compared more than once to a Jai Santoshi Maa register: sincere, loud, and not always in conversation with the rest of the movie.

When a director famous for small-room truth makes a forest epic that reviewers call tacky, the problem isn't "fantasy is beneath him." It's that the film treats folklore as costume and action as a rescue plan for a script that lost the path.

If the reviews are this bad, why did it still open?

Because openings and notices are not the same market. Per Sacnilk, Day 1 (Friday, September 25) was about Rs 8 crore India net / Rs 9.6 crore India gross across 6,746 shows, occupancy in the mid-20s, stronger at night (~41%) than morning (~12%). Indian Express and The Week both framed that as Sidharth's strongest solo-lead opener in a long stretch — ahead of Param Sundari (~Rs 7.4 crore) and well ahead of the same month's Vibe and Daayra soft starts.

Day 2 (Saturday) grew: Sacnilk snapshots put Saturday around Rs 11 crore net, taking India net near Rs 19 crore after two days, with worldwide gross in the mid-Rs 20 crore range once a small overseas add is counted. Trade notes also flagged better traction in B- and C-centres. For an actor whose last widely cited theatrical hit is a decade-old Ek Villain / Kapoor & Sons era, and whose praised Shershaah went straight to OTT, that opening is not nothing.

It is also not a verdict that the movie works. The Paradise's career-best Nani opener this same week showed the same pattern: people buy the pitch, then reviews ask whether the film earned it. Vvaan's Saturday bump can be genuine mass acceptance, or just the usual weekend lift before Monday tells the truth. Both can be true until weekday numbers land.

Should you watch it in theatres?

If you specifically want a Hindi folklore fantasy with Chhath texture, a goddess curse, and a loud second-half set piece, some paying audiences are clearly getting that. If you want a story that holds together — characters with motives, a villain who registers, a climax that follows from the first hour — the critic consensus is that this film walks into the woods and stays there.

Sidharth looks the part. Tamannaah commits to the bhakti register. Grover is the name most people, even the harsh reviews, still single out. None of that substitutes for a screenplay that picks a lane.

What's confirmed versus what's still settling?

Confirmed: September 25 theatrical release; Mishra–Arunabh Kumar film; Sidharth, Tamannaah, Grover, Soni, Tiwari, Paul; Day 1 about Rs 8 crore net; critic ratings ranging from 0.5 (Indian Express) to around 2.5 at the generous end, with social posts running warmer. Still settling: Sunday/weekday hold, whether this becomes Sidharth's first real theatrical hit in years, and whether the B/C-centre love survives once the first-wave curiosity is spent.

For how other 2026 openers have split between money and notices, see The Paradise's mixed-review career-best start and Toxic's Monday crash.