Tumbbad

Title: Tumbbad
Director: Rahi Anil Barve
Released: 2018
Starring: Sohum Shah, Dhundiraj Prabhakar Jogalekar, Jyoti Malshe, Anita Date-Kelkar, Ronjini Chakraborty, Deepak Damle,Mohammad Samad. Harsh K, Rudra Soni, Madhav Hari Joshi. Cameron Anderson, Piyush Kaushik

Plot: In 1933 India, Vinyayak (Shah) returns to his childhood home of Tumbbad eager to find the hidden fortune of zamindar Sarkar

Review: A period folk horror from India and a passion project for director Rahi Anil Barve who initially wrote the first draft of the script back in 1997 which drew inspiration from the story “Aaji” by Marathi writer Narayan Dharap who holds the distinct honor of being the first author to bring H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos to Marathi readers. Barve returned to this draft script in 2009 where he spent a further year creating a 700 page storyboard and finally shooting the film in 2012. However when it came to editing he was unhappy with the results and rewrote and shot the film in 2015.

Setting a folk horror in a more exotic location than the English countryside and in turn not linked to my own memories of growing up in Cornwall is a welcome twist to the format and Barve wastes little time in establishing his mythos with the films opening as he tells the history of the goddess of prosperity who was the mother to all gods and whose son Hastar’s greed for both gold and grain until he was destroyed by the other gods and hidden in his mothers womb. Now worshipped by the residents of Tumbbad they find themselves cursed with never ending rain while the zamindar Sarkar is rumoured to be hiding a fortune guarded by Hastar which becomes an obsession for Vinyayak.

Shirking the usual expectations for Indian cinema as Barve does away with the spontaneous moments of song and dance instead using the soundtrack to serve the same purpose of these sequences as Vinyayak exploits his new found money pit with the film being as much about how money corrupts as it about the source of new found wealth with the film spanning multiple years and generations as Vinyayak is soon training his son to ensure the families continued wealth while India’s move toward independence threatens to derail his scheme. 

Barve also brings a strong visual eye to the film with Hastar being a memorably goey creation much like his lair which certainly lives up to its name of being the “Goddess Womb” with his cinematography constantly engaging whether creating scenes of horror or just capturing the rain soaked eeriness of Tumbbad or the crumbling mansion within whose walls the fortune is held. Even before Vinyayak’s return the spooky thrills are being established as his family being tasked with looking after a mutated old woman who carries the curse of Hastar and a hunger to consume the Vinyayak when as a child he fails to follow his mothers warnings. 

A truly unique experience and one which is able to play into both the supernatural thrills as it is watching its lead slowly be consumed and corrupted by the gold he obsesses over. Even if you’re not a fan of folk horror Barve here shakes up the formula to play against your expectations and when paired with the fantastic cinematography it makes for something rather special.