Hanuman Ansh Review: A Spiritual Journey Weighed Down By Uneven Storytelling

The journey of the recently released Bollywood movie Hanuman Ansh is unusual. Made for a reported Rs 2 crore, the film has crossed Rs 200 crore at the box office since its August 7, 2026, release.

For a film centred on the life and spiritual journey of Neem Karoli Baba, and made on such a modest scale, that kind of theatrical response is remarkable. But commercial success and cinematic merit are different, and Hanuman Ansh is a film whose subject often proves more interesting than how it’s brought to the screen.

Written and directed by Vishal Chaturvedi and based on his book Divine Detour, That Changed My Life, the film explores the life of Neem Karoli Baba through his spiritual experiences and some of the supernatural incidents associated with him.

The movie opens in 1942, in British-ruled India, with a freedom fighter recounting Neem Karoli Baba’s life. The narrative then moves into the past and introduces him as Lakshmi Narayan, a boy who loses his mother at an early age. Her death becomes a defining experience in his life. His longing to meet her again draws him towards God, and what begins with grief gradually develops into a deeper spiritual search. He eventually leaves home, and the film follows the path that takes the young Lakshmi Narayan towards becoming Neem Karoli Baba.

Hanuman Ansh has no conventional plot, and it doesn’t need one. The film is built around different episodes from Neem Karoli Baba’s life, many of them involving faith, devotion, and experiences presented as supernatural.

An episodic structure can work particularly well with a life such as this, but the individual incidents need to feel like stages of the same journey. Here, that connection is often missing.

The screenplay moves from one incident to another without always letting the previous one settle or the next grow naturally from it.

Some of these episodes are interesting on their own, but together they don’t quite form a satisfying dramatic whole. The editing adds to this unevenness.

Certain portions linger unnecessarily, while significant changes in Lakshmi Narayan’s life sometimes arrive without enough buildup. Over roughly two and a half hours, the lack of narrative rhythm becomes hard to ignore.

The visual effects are also a problem, especially in scenes meant to convey the supernatural. Such moments depend greatly on atmosphere and visual conviction.

The VFX here frequently look artificial, and instead of drawing the viewer further into these experiences, they can have the opposite effect.

What the film misses most, however, is emotional depth. The material itself offers plenty. A child loses his mother, spends years carrying the desire to see her again, turns towards God, leaves his home and gradually gives himself over to a spiritual life.

Sadness, longing, and transformation mark that journey. Yet very few of these emotions are allowed enough space to become truly affecting. We understand what Lakshmi Narayan is going through, but we do not always feel it with him.

The performances are competent but largely restrained by the material. No particular actor leaves a strong impression, though neither is there a performance that feels seriously out of place. Much of the acting follows the film’s straightforward devotional tone, leaving little room for individual performances to gain greater depth.

A viewer’s response to Hanuman Ansh will inevitably be shaped to some extent by their relationship with its subject. Someone already interested in Neem Karoli Baba or drawn towards devotional and spiritual stories may find value in seeing these incidents from his life represented on screen. Those approaching it primarily as a biographical drama may struggle with its loose construction and its unquestioning treatment of supernatural events.

Neem Karoli Baba’s life offered enough to make Hanuman Ansh a fascinating spiritual biography. The film offers glimpses of that life and the beliefs surrounding him, but it never quite brings them together with the clarity or emotional force they needed. Its extraordinary box-office run shows that the subject has found a large audience. On screen, though, the experience is more uneven: interesting in parts, sincere in its devotion, but held back by a scattered screenplay, weak visual effects and a story that rarely becomes as moving as the life behind it.

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