Tumbbad: A cinema to take you on a trip to dark corners hidden inside you

All reviews have said so much about the visually stunning quality of the movie, Tumbbad. The rain shots, the dark and gloomy scenes and the visual effects... A less bollywoodish movie, way different from the visually loaded movies made in bollywood with extravagant graphics. It sure has graphics, which is just apt, not luxurious at all. It's a story that says greed breeds sorrow and destruction. Remember the story of goose that laid golden eggs? Never cut the goose, you will lose everything.



A lot of effort has gone into making the movie suit the time period it is set in - right from the metal pipe used in kitchen to blow air into fireplace, to the old jeep-like BMW. But the scenes haunt even after you come out - after all, you just went into a dark, magnificent and magnanimous womb of the sacred feminine that protects the world from a darkest hidden secret... a cave of greed and bloodshed... and above all, you came out unhurt! Whether you will be able to come out of the cycle of greed in reality so easily, unhurt, remains a personal quest in your life.

Even in reality, wombs have darkest secrets, which shock the world if they come out. If you are a thinking type, Tumbbad gives you a lot of meaningful matter to mull over.

Sohum Shah is exceptional, and his wife played by Anita Date too. I like it when the actors are not so famous and known - it gives the story a lot of scope to shine. Music is just apt, non-intrusive. The movie is crisp though it took years to make it. The wadi set is magnificently eerie, and looks real.

Last movie I saw, Sriram Raghavan's Andhadhun focused on karma - it gave a sense of poetic justice where people who erred got it back in a grand manner. I kind of liked it. That way Tumbbad is also great.

Tumbbad is a multilayered film depicted through a non-existent mythology - the story doesn't exist in folk culture as per my knowledge. Watch the movie, then apply it to what's happening around you - it resonates everywhere - personal level as well as social and economic levels.



In a macro-level, all environmental issues resonate with it perfectly. Mining of natural resources... Genetic engineering to increase crop productivity...  Big dams to store more water.. Big roads to carry more people.. Nuclear power production to get more out of less... All have proved harmful in their own way while they bring their benefit. And we can never escape the cycle. Keep this in mind and watch the movie, it's a beautiful one!

The crazy me had tightly held onto my companion when the scenes got a bit scary, and closed my ears to the music - a mute cinema doesn't scare one, it is the combo of visuals and audio that scares people :-)

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What made me a bit uncomfortable is the character of the boy - how he grows without a sense of rights and wrongs and ethics. It's a personal conflict in my head that makes me wonder whether we are in an era that yearns for perfection in human beings. While I thought we humans had become much complicated creatures full of rainbow colours, there are still absolute rights and wrongs, which keep changing according to the time and its trends. In such an era is it good for a cinema to show layered characters that are neither black nor white? Will these directors be judged in future? What is the benefit for the director by showing a boy like this?

This conflict is in my head because of the way society has changed right now, and the way I see it. I'm a creature that almost always bothers about the social impact of a movie and judges a movie based on what it tries to say.

I also found the quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi strange though it perfectly relates to the theme. The movie ended at the time when India got Independence, before Gandhi died, I thought. It is more for the audience than being a part of the movie itself.

Please don't make children watch this movie. It has A certificate, is scary and has concepts and scenes that should not be seen by children. If you yourself feel drawn into the gory dark the movie paints, just close your ears :-) it works! 😊

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Next movie on my list is Ship of Theseus, involving Sohum Shah and Anand Gandhi duo, which again looks like a layered, my kind of film. Going by this video, Sohum Shah looks like a person who brings his life philosophy to the films he is involved in, and his philosophy is attractive enough!

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