Tumbbad – A Panchatantra-esque Tale Brought to Life

Tumbbad

Horror in Hindi cinema was once the exclusive property of the Bhatt family, they of the Raaz and the 1920 films. Ekta Kapoor also ventured into the genre, though she catered more to the hormonally-charged horrex fans. The last year has somewhat altered that. First came the Siddharth-produced Milind Rau-directorial The House Next Door, a trilingual film made in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. Then came Pari, backed by and starring Anushka Sharma as the protagonist. And now there’s Tumbbad, a film that has been in the making for the last six years.

Tumbbad is essentially a morality tale, one that talks about greed. The title is the name of a village in the western part of the Bombay Presidency, possibly the Ghats. It is this village and a wada in it that serve as the base of the mythological plot.

Inside the wada is a khazana – pieces of gold. There is an interesting backstory to the gold, one which involves a goddess and her wayward son Hastar, but the plot of the film itself revolves around the pieces of gold and the protagonist Vinayak’s quest to get as much of it as he possibly can.

Shot over three monsoons in Maharashtra, the scenery in Tumbbad induces shivers within the viewer. Dominating most of the film’s runtime is the pouring rain, grey skies and a landscape designed and filmed to ensure that the atmosphere for the film is set at the right pitch. There is also the wada, a rundown mansion that comes with its own budhau and nooks and crannies.

The film’s greatest strength lies in Pankaj Kumar’s spectacular cinematography. It is rare that one gets to see a cinematographer go such a distance in a Hindi film, most of which rob the camera and the man controlling it of creative impact. When was the last time you appreciated a Hindi film’s cinematography? Not its visuals, but the movement of the camera, the way a shot is lit and framed. One might argue that cinematography – like everything else on a film – is supposed to serve the larger narrative of the story and the director’s vision, but surely that doesn’t mean a cinematographer shouldn’t be able to create a work of art by her or himself. Pankaj, who has shot Ship of Theseus, Haider, Talvar, Rangoon and portions of Daddy, is fortunately allowed that latitude and freedom by his directors and he exploits it fully. A large amount of the film is handheld, like Haider and Talvar, creating a sense of unease and tension. Pankaj doesn’t shy from shooting in what might seem like pitch darkness either, allowing the audience to see only a shadow or an outline. The lighting enhances the dread, showing and hiding in equal measures. And then there are the gorgeous, rain-drenched vistas of the village. Yeah, Tumbbad is perhaps the best-shot Hindi film of 2018 thus far.

Nitin Choudhary and Rakesh Yadav’s production design is also very commendable. The authenticity that the wada and Vinayak’s house in Poona radiate is difficult to create, especially since these are things people have seen pictures of and thus have an image, or at least an idea of. But perhaps the most interesting piece of production design in the film is the womb of the Goddess: eerie but beautiful.

Sanyukta Kaza’s editing gives the film a natural rhythm and the sound design by Kunal Sharma matches Pankaj’s visuals perfectly. At no point does the sound go overboard in trying to scare you; the elements are mixed together magically, accompanied by Jesper Kyd’s excellent score, to give you the creeps rather than make you jump out of your skin.

Tumbbad has a whole host of supporting characters, of whom it is young Mohammed Samad, playing Vinayak’s son Pandurang, who shines as the lad who has inherited much of his father’s ways but still seems to possess a moral compass. Deepak Damle, Anita Date and Ronjini Chakraborty help pull the film up after the slightly lacklustre performances in Chapter One.

But Tumbbad is Sohum Shah’s film through and through. He is gripping as the despicable and outrageously greedy Vinayak. And while the performance is driven by his lust for the gold in the wada, that’s not all there is to Vinayak. He is a miserable husband who has his mistress living under the same roof as his wife and children, he sees nothing wrong in making his son as greedy as himself. And yet you can never truly hate Vinayak. Maybe because Sohum manages to make his greed relatable – to a certain degree. Or maybe it’s just that good a performance.

Written by four people (Anand Gandhi, Mitesh Shah and the directors), Tumbbad is a fairly simple film to follow. While it is part-horror, part-morality tale, it is wonderful to see how other elements like the position of women in society, raising a child, Raj profiteering and that little hint of politics is blended into it. My sole quibble is that the film is in Hindi, and that made the entire first chapter feel very laboured. It would’ve worked so much better in Marathi.

Directors Rahi Anil Barve and Adesh Prasad put together a very Panchtantra-esque tale that is an absolute joy to watch. The way they introduce mythology, society and the greed of the human being into one tale produces a stunner of a result. The film is much like the sort of story one would be told by one’s parents or grandparents at a young age. For me, Tumbbad was a throwback to the time my father would tell my sister and me a story (or ten) before bed every night.

Give Tumbbad a dekko. It deserves that, and much more, for the sheer spectacle it is.