Hi everyone!
Andrew’s back with another Fantastic Fest feature, and his first film from the Indian subcontinent. I know, right? I haven’t seen this one yet, myself, but for a few other Indian films from the Bollywood scene, check out “Love per Square Foot” (Episode #052), “Sometimes” (Episode #136), “Lust Stories” (Episode #168), “Brjj Mohan Amar Rahe” (Episode #220), “Rajma Chawal” (Episode #344), and “Soni” (Episode #389). And be sure to check out Andrew’s other reviews using #FantasticFest or the Fantastic Fest blog tag at onemoviepunch.com.
Take it away, Andrew!
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Hello, Film Fans!
Andrew here, back this week with a horror film that made its U.S. Premiere at the 2018 Fantastic Fest before sneaking onto Amazon Prime video back in February.
Before I get into the film, let’s have a quick chat about streaming services such as Prime. If you watch a lot of movies and are always on the hunt for the newest content, I recommend an app called JustWatch. JustWatch lets you select your streaming service platforms and creates a daily list of all the films and television programs that are added to each service that day. You can also look up a particular movie to see where it might be streaming. You’ll notice quickly that no other service keeps up with Amazon Prime in terms of the sheer volume of added content. Netflix, which has roughly a quarter of Amazon’s library, focuses on two things: “quality” and its “Netflix original films” – two universes that rarely seem to intersect. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime continues to grow its catalogue of classic and retro films, ultra-low-budget indies through its Prime Video Direct program, and an ever-growing library of foreign films; which brings us to today’s film.
Today’s movie is “Tumbbad” (2018), a mythological horror film produced in India and co-directed by Rahi Anil Barve and Adesh Prasad. The story starts in 1947 during the end of the British colonial period. “Tumbbad” tells the story of Vinayak (Sohum Shah) who grew up in remote Tumbbad 30 years earlier. As a boy, Vinayak, along with his mother and brother, serve the village lord Sarkar. And then it gets weird. Chained up in Sarkar’s mansion is Vinayak’s elderly and decaying grandmother, sequestered away from her family. After the death of Sarkar, what unfolds is a tale of greed that extends into Vinayak’s adult life as he and his family continue to feel the call of Tumbbad and the secrets lying within the crumbling and desolate estate.
No Spoilers.
The story behind the creation of this film is an interesting one. India has the largest film industry in the world in terms of the sheer number of films produced, upwards of 1500 per year, with ticket sales of more than $2B dollars in recent years. (Incidentally, we cover all of these films in our sister podcast “Five Movie Punch – Five movies per day, every day.”)
Joseph: Stepping in here to say that One Movie Punch in no way, shape, or form has a podcast called Five Movie Punch. At least not yet...
For a film to stand out in the crowd, it takes something unique. Writer/director Barve wrote a first draft of the screenplay nearly 20 years ago at the age of 18. After years of rewrites and attempts to finance the project, the film was shot in 2012 only to be scrapped when the low-budget project did not meet the director’s expectations. He started over, filming over a period of three years up until 2015, and spent another two-plus years in post-production before its 2018 release. The cost? All in, the budget clocked in just under $2 million for a film that contains some horrifying practical effects, and very minimal but effective use of computer-generated effects at the conclusion.
Without getting into the details, what the Tumbbad mansion holds is a source of ongoing wealth that the brave and foolhardy have been able to tap into for generations. The film chugs along at a slow pace as we get to know more of Vinayak and what drives him. The story at once feels like one you’ve heard before but somehow brand new as you see it through a different cultural viewpoint. The central myth of the film is so simple and clever that it feels like something out of a religious text or ancient tome. While I enjoyed those aspects of the movie, some of the mundane moments of character development tended to drag and suck the wind out of the picture. A more patient film-watcher who can maintain focus will find the ending worth the payoff.
The setting, unique to most American audiences, and strong visuals propel this film, but perhaps it’s the limited budget that constrained just how far the director was able to go with the horror. For a film that at its heart is a cautionary tale about the perils of greed, it’s not really until the final 30 minutes that we begin to see the price of Vinayak’s sin. The film fails to create sympathetic characters, so my interest wasn’t in the fate of the characters but rather in seeing how the director would make all the creepy build-up pay off.
“Tumbbad” is an authentic horror fable out of mid-century India that does well in balancing terror with story, but suffers somewhat with its simple characters. Fans of mystical horror films with a rural backdrop such as 2015’s “The Witch”, set in colonial America, or 2016’s “The Wailing”, set in a secluded South Korean village, will enjoy this film.
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: NR
One Movie Punch: 7.4/10
“Tumbbad” is not rated and is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
Come back next week when I’ll be reviewing “The Incident”, an amazing Mexican film you should go stream on Netflix right away. If you enjoy low-budget indie films that play with the concept of time, such as “Primer” or “Timecrimes”, get ready to hear about a clever gem that you’ve probably missed.
