When i saw Tumbbad

It was an October evening, I was in my 2nd year of mechanical engineering, lying on my bed, paddling my thumb and brain on Instagram and YouTube. Reels and shorts were not a thing back then. Suddenly, this thumbnail of the TUMBBAD TRAILER popped up; I had zero idea and expectation. But when I saw the trailer, damn!! it just blew my mind. The world, the atmosphere, the music—everything just sucked me in.

Immediately, I called my friend and told him, 'Bhai, you need to see this.' Bang on! We decided to watch it.

We sat in the auditorium, and there were merely 12 people. We were sitting in the 2nd row, even those cheap tickets were expensive for us college-going lads.

The film began with a quote

The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.

Mahatma Gandhi

and we entered into "Devi Maa ki Konk"; into the world of TUMBBAD.

Curse or Blessing? A source of gold that never ends, but you get it by risking your life to the monster. Who, on touching, will make you one and will make you Amar (Immortal), but like a living corpse, agonized, begging for death. The story of 4 generations in 113 mins. But mainly focused on Vinayak and his teen son Pandurang.

Vinayak's story is nothing different from any other average Indian back in the time of the pre-independence era. He wants to leave the life of poverty, ready to do anything to earn quick money. Failing at everything, he decides to go back to Tumbbad, a town he and his mother left 15 years ago following the death of his brother, Sadashiv. He is now greedy for the mystic womb at the Sarkar's Wada. His mother was the mistress to Sarkar.

Sorry! Sorry! this is not a quintessential movie review. I forgot that.

Vinayak and Pandurang's story shows us how the powerful worm of greed settles on our shoulders and distorts our lives.

Tumbbad was Rahi Anil Barve's baby; in fact, since 1993, this parasite has been eating his brain cells. It ended up in 700+ pages of storyboard. Before Tumbbad and his much-acclaimed short film "Manjha," Rahi Barve used to work as an animator, being skillful at his job, but the insect of filmmaking is something else. He got this passion from his father, Anil Barve, a renowned Marathi novelist who worked in the 70s and 80s. That is a different story. The other name is Adesh Prasad, who worked closely with Rahi and mainly coordinated with the music composer of the film, Jesper Kyd. The thematic excerpt was added by Anand Gandhi (the director of Ship of Theseus); his idea is visible when we read the quote at the beginning, same as we saw in Ship of Theseus. Not going to explain what that is—go! See for yourself!

What fascinates me is the persistence and resilience of Rahi Barve.

Standing still even after the film was shelved twice is crazy. For those who aren't aware of the dynamics of the movie business and how the system works, let me tell you: it's living hell for those who are part of it and want to make something without any major internal support. After the recent release of the film, Barve has shared a few snippets from his memoir, Shwaspane, which takes us through the whole hell that Tumbbad went through. As he said in an old interview, 'Tumbbad Narkatna Gelay!' (Tumbbad has been through hell).

It really doesn't matter how good and capable you are at something; you need to pass the test of time to earn something from it. Not just in terms of money but beyond that as well—the greatness and footprint in history.

Going to the film with zero expectations and having no idea about it, and leaving the cinema with the realization of how one could imagine and turn it into a reality.

I was naive and high on enthusiasm when I came out of the theater. I searched for Rahi on Facebook; he was more active there. I messaged him, telling him how great our experience was and how joyful we felt seeing his name as the writer-director of the film (I take a little pride in seeing a Marathi name on the big screen) and presenting this Maharashtrian lore to the world.

He was kind enough to respond, and I was blunt enough to ask him to make me his AD. I wanted to learn from him. He was honest and told me, 'Akash! You need to find your own way, learn, and then make the film that you want. All the love and best wishes!'

The message and everything I had just witnessed sparked me to shoot the script that I had written long ago. Someday, you all will get to see it.

For now, I'm going to see Tumbbad again in theater. Till then, b'bye!