Tumbbad

Director Rahi Anil Barve said the title is derived from Shripad Narayan Pendse's Marathi novel Tumbadche Khot.[7] He wrote the first draft in 1997, when he was 18 years old. From 2009 to 2010, he created a 700-page storyboard within eight months, which he said was the "anchor on which everything was based."[8] Barve wrote the script based on a story his friend had told when they were in the Nagzira wildlife sanctuary in 1993 "which made him crap his pants."[9] It was a story by Marathi writer Narayan Dharap. Years later, when he revisited Dharap's story, he found it "utterly bland, mundane and forgettable."[9] He realised "it was my friend's narration... that left an indelible print- no, scar on my psyche" which "kept the story alive."[9] Barve took the story's basic premise about a scheming moneylender and another of his works, about a girl left alone with her grandmother who is possessed by a demon, and began writing a screenplay.[10] He managed to find a producer, but they backed out in 2008. He obtained financing and principal photography began in the monsoon of 2012.[7]

Sohum Shah was cast in the role of Vinayak Rao, for which he gained eight kilograms (eighteen pounds).[11] Since the production took six years, he maintained his character's look for the entire period.[12] Shah said that he was surprised after hearing the story for the time because he "hadn't seen anything like this in Indian cinema."[13] He found it similar to Vikram Baital and Panchatantra.[14] Barve said the story's main theme was greed, and that the first half hour of the film is in the "universe of Dharap's stories."[15] The film shows Hastar who, according to mythology stated in the movie, was banished to the womb of the mother goddess for being greedy for food and gold.[15] The film is divided in three chapters which Barve said was also a metaphor for the "journey of India, as we see it today."[15] It had gone on the floor three times and was optioned by seven production companies who backed out. Barve feels this was because he had "no frame of reference for them, nothing like Tumbbad had even been tried before."[15] Shah worked on his Marathi diction and accent since the character of Vinayak was a Marathi.[16] Anand Gandhi served as the co-writer, creative director and executive producer.[17] Barve's initial idea was to tell three different stories of Tumbbad village in the film; Gandhi and Mitesh turned it into one person's story.[18] The myth of Hastar was the last addition to the story to serve as a backstory.[18] The screenplay was written by Barve, Prasad, Gandhi and Mitesh Shah.[19]

Tumbbad first went into production in 2008 with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead role but was quickly shelved as the producer backed out.[10] It was then shot in 2012 after Shah and Gandhi came on board. The film has minimal dialogue and was shot with constant physical movement with few cuts.[7] Barve said, "we shot in the rain at age-old locations, where no human had ventured for at least a hundred years. For me, Tumbbad's locations, the feel of its stuffy air, and the lonely rainy atmosphere that defies the feeling of time's passage is as central as its characters."[7] After the editing, Barve and Shah realised the film was "not able to achieve what it set out to do."[20] It was then re-written and re-shot and the filming completed in May 2015.[20][21] The Mutha River in the Onkareshwar area was taken as a reference for the set creation. In three weeks, the set of the small town around the temple was recreated.[22] A doppelganger set of an old Pune city was created for the film. Sohum Shah wore the typical attire worn by Konkanasth Brahmans in Maharashtra.[23] It was shot in natural light.[8] Some scenes were also shot in Mahabaleshwar and the Tumbbad village.[10][24] The visual effects were produced by Sean Wheelan's team at Filmgate Films, who were also the co-producers.[20] Pankaj Kumar served as the director of photography and Sanyukta Kaza edited the film.[25] Kumar had shot Barve's short film Manjha in 2006 and learned of Tumbbad's story from Barve.[26]

Barve created a story book for reference. Kumar called the filming process "long, strong and intense."[26] It was decided the film's look would be "moody and gloomy"; the village had to look timeless "without a clear demarcation between day and night."[26] The shooting was done without any sunlight on Red Camera in digital format. Kumar said that the film's entire shooting schedule revolved around lighting, noting the constant rain and grey tone gave a "constant sense of gloom and dread."[27] He wanted the film to be shot only during the monsoon with its constant rain as he wanted a feeling of "wetness at all times": "We wanted the audience to feel drenched when they came out of the theatres."[26] However, due to a shortage of rainfall that year, Kumar did not get sufficient rain. The crew used artificial rain for the scenes and had to wait for hours for cloud cover.[26] Tumbbad was shot in several locations across Maharashtra including Saswad and villages of the Satara district. Some scenes were shot on constructed sets in Mumbai, including the womb sequence. Kumar said that the team did extensive recce for a few years as they were looking for "large landscapes without modern infringements, without towers and structures."[26] They also did not have the budget for the visual effects to erase the contemporary architectural elements.[26]

The film had four colour schemes including blue, cold grey, red and gold. 50 lanterns and lamps were used for several scenes to avoid modern-day lighting techniques since it was a period film.[26] The scenes inside the womb took 15 to 20 days to shoot without any visual effects. The character of Hastar was created with heavy prosthetic makeup by prosthetics makeup artist Gurpreet Singh Dhuri and that required six to seven hours to prepare.[28][26][29] Shah wore contact lenses throughout the film for the grey eyes. The entire film was shot over 100 to 120 days with four shooting schedules in 2012 and 2015. After the shoot, the team felt that the film was "halfway there" to becoming something that "audiences hadn't seen before." After that the script went through re-writing, some scenes were added, and the story was "enhanced". The sets were rebuilt and the womb was added.[26] The film's production designers were Nitin Zihani Choudhary and Rakesh Yadav. For their research, they used photograph's from the 18th and 19th century during the British Raj.[30] The interiors of the cave were shot at the Purandare Wada near Pune.[30] It was made to look old and "consumed by earth";[31] the crew spread moss all over the site. An entire market was created at Satara that included several shops, but it was not used very often in the film.[30]

The film's post-production took two-and-a-half years to complete.[32] Kaza had asked Prasad to write the dialogues again after she re-arranged the grandmother's tree scene while editing it. She used the "only usable stable shots and put them in a certain order and then called Adesh and asked him to re-write the dialogues according to the edit."[33] Its initial runtime was close to 200 minutes which was edited to 100 minutes.[34] The film's climax inside the womb was shot with only one source of light—an oil lamp.[27] The film was produced by Film i Väst and Filmgate Films along with Eros International and Aanand L. Rai's Colour Yellow Productions.[35][36]

Tumbbad opened to mostly positive critical reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 86% based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 7.67/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Tumbbad has everything you never knew you needed in a cliché horror romp that is very pleasing to the eye."[52] Rachit Gupta of The Times of India called the film "moody and atmospheric" and said that fans of Hollywood horror films will be reminded of Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Eraserhead (1977).[53] Baradwaj Rangan wrote: "It’s been a while since something genre-based turned out so rich and mysterious, so defiantly its own thing."[54] Raja Sen called the film "an ambitious one, artistic and attentively made, reminding me of the trippy stylings of filmmaker Tarsem Singh."[55] The Indian Express's Shubhra Gupta called it "highly unusual, visually stunning, richly atmospheric concoction of genres and themes."[56]

Sanjukta Sharma of Scroll.in felt the film subverts genres "astutely, without any gimmicks": "It has been a while since a horror film spoke so eloquently about something as primal as greed and remained true to its Indian setting."[57] Mint's Udita Jhunjhunwala cited the film as "eerie, imaginatively designed, stunningly filmed and well directed."[58] Anupama Chopra felt the film was nothing like "you have seen before in Hindi cinema", calling it "the most visually stunning film I've seen since Padmaavat".[59] Subhash K. Jha praised the visuals and wrote: "If you think cinema is predominantly a visual medium then don't miss Tumbbad".[60] Rediff.com's Sreehari Nair observed that "our apprehensions are raised lazily and we wait like masochists for the manipulations to arrive, but what we get instead is a single-line moral."[61] Namrata Joshi gave a positive review and wrote: "The atmosphere, landscape, and themes in Tumbbad are accentuated by a sense of Gothic dread and an eerie expectancy of the diabolical."[62]

Suparna Sharma of the Deccan Chronicle noted that the film has "the beauty and horror of imagination, and it stalks you gently, long after you’ve left the theatre."[63] Reuters' Shilpa Jamkhandikar said that the "true star here is Barve, who takes what could have been a regular horror film and elevates it to another level."[64] Stutee Ghosh of The Quint wrote: "It excels is in its ability to weave together a formidable canvas with fear, fantasy and folklore blending in seamlessly to give us an unrelenting ominous journey."[65] Anna M. M. Vetticad wrote: "The joy of watching Tumbbad comes from the fact that Barve and his co-writers offer no answers, making this a delightfully intriguing film."[66] Rajeev Masand called it "a wildly original film with a look and feel that is of the highest standard."[67] Jai Arjun Singh called the film "spooky, majestic and affecting, and these qualities come from the set design, the use of music, and the evocation of a place that is like a breathing thing, corroding the thoughts and actions of the people in it."[68]

Lee Marshall of Screen International called it an "initially atmospheric yarn let down by weak stock characters and a long veer into fright-free period drama in its over-long middle section".[69] The Hollywood Reporter's Deborah Young called the film "atmospheric, heavy on mythology and scary as hell."[25] J. Hurtado of Screen Anarchy had a positive response and wrote: "A slow burn whose finale is wonderfully unexpected and yet fitting, Tumbbad is a great film and hopefully the start of a new trend in India."[70] He also included it on his list of 14 Favorite Indian Films of 2018.[47]

Dread Central's Jonathan Barkan wrote that the film "is more focused on the horror of human behavior than it is on creaking doors and the terror of what lurks in the dark." He also felt that the film's second half was "overly drawn out".[71] Matt Donato of /Film wrote: "Mad creature-feature designs, Academy-worthy blends of color and pristine optical packaging, despicable character work meant to provoke heartlessness traded for materialistic grandiosity – Tumbbad is a full genre package seasoned with a pungent foreign kick."[72] Trace Thurman of Bloody Disgusting wrote in his review: "With a compelling story of greed that spans more than 30 years, a memorable monster and some truly beautiful cinematography, Tumbbad is not to be missed."[73] Jacob Trussell of Film School Rejects called the film "Indian folk horror at its finest" that offers "an Indian film about Indian culture, removed of the trappings of the musical and replaced with stories of little known Indian theology."[74]

Tumbbad was made on a production budget of ₹50 million (US$630,000).[3] It collected ₹6.5 million (US$81,000) in its opening day at the box office.[75] The collection increased after positive word of mouth and the film earned ₹11.5 million (US$140,000) on its second and ₹14.5 million (US$180,000) on its third day, making a total of ₹32.5 million (US$410,000) during the first weekend.[76] At the end of its first week, the film earned a total of ₹58.5 million (US$730,000), it was followed by ₹89.9 million (US$1.1 million) in its second week and ₹101 million (US$1.3 million) in its third week.[77] At the end of its nine-week theatrical run, Tumbbad earned a total of ₹136 million (US$1.7 million) at the box office.[1]