Tumbbad - My View

We are living in an era where the quantity of the movies has gone high but the quality of movies is seeing a low. This doesn't apply only to Kollywood but also to Hollywood and Bollywood. If there is one genre which is brutally affected by this quantity vs quality trend then it is the horror genre. The 95% of movies that are coming up under the horror genre is neither giving us fears, nightmares or revulsions. At one end the industry has started to rely merely only on jump scares which I feel like a cheap technique and total injustice to the horror genre. Jump scares are definitely needed in a movie but to what extent is the question.  We see many movies nowadays which travel only on jump scares devoiding us the terror and chill feel which is the very heart of a horror movie. On another end, we have horror movies which are full of comedy that makes us wonder if we are seeing a comedy movie or a horror movie. I strongly started to believe the age of horrors are gone and people have forgotten the real taste of it and the filmmakers have forgotten the art of making it.

Just as they say in stories when things go dark, an event or person would eventually come in to eradicate the darkness. In this case, Tumbbad has come into our lives with the beacon of light promising the true horror is not yet lost. It had just gone for a short slumber and has returned with a bang.

Tumbbad is a horror movie set in the 1947 periodic background. The movie is about the story of a fallen God whose greed and curse lead to his downfalls and how it still spreads when people come in contact with. People who had seen the movie might wonder wait this is not the plot as it is about a greedy man who wants to loot a treasure from a fallen God. if he succeeds or not is the story. Yes, the people who claim it so are also right but deep down I feel the real plot is what I told in the first instance.

In a way, each and every character who tries to get the gold is filled with greed and end up with remorse for falling into greed. Like the God Hastar, they start with greed and do the unthinkable and end up losing everything finally left to be forgotten. The movie beautifully establishes this point deep in us without overdoing it at any instance.

The actors have given a strong performance where we see them only for the characters they portray. The kid who enacts the role of a son has done a marvelous job. His transformation from an innocent child to evil, greedy and unethical kid is established and enacted in a perfect way. Sohum Shah as Vinayak is a revolt in the role and one should get despised by his character and he does so well in achieving it.

The movie deserves praise for its non-boring screenplay and interest quotient it maintains all through the movie. When the movie starts we want to know if the said Hastar story is true or false. The next phase of the story is how he gets the golden coins. Is there a secret treasure, magic. The last phase is all about if the hero's and his son's greedy plan get success or not. The director takes us through a journey which is filled with folklore, mystery, thriller, horror and set in a historical period. This is no easy job and the director has nailed this to perfection. Along with this main plot, the director also showcases some of the evils that had happened in the era like women confinement to home and the way they were seen and handled inside the home. It is often said a father's sin is carried and paid by their son and we can see this cycle from start to the end of the movie. These are some other highlights of the movie which are hard to be ignored.



The next two aspects of the movie which are hard to be ignored are the cinematography and the music. The cinematography especially the Tumbbad rainy village, ancestral house or the Goddess womb are like characters in the movie and they are brought to life by the brilliant camera work. The music is the backbone fo the movie as it sets the mood for the scenes and it does well for us to get into the needed mood for the movie. Especially during the rainy and in the womb scenes it was so good.

How many times you come across a movie which achieves the following two things. Makes you go back and search more about the movie's content like in this case the Tumbbad village or Hastar character. The second one is the after effect of the movie in you. I can promise you whoever has seen the movie will be using the following sentence, many times in their life "Go to sleep or else HASTAR will come". These two things are the ultimate success for the movie. On end note, I always try to predict the climax and when my prediction goes wrong or completely blows me off with something totally unexpected will give you a feel which is priceless. Only certain movies are gifted and well made to achieve this and this one does it.