Knowledge before Greed

'Tumbbad' is a winner all the way. Again, this is not a review as much as it is a discussion post and yes, Pankaj Kumar has outdone himself and any cinematographer in the Indian film industry this year. Watch out for the last 15 minutes especially.

'Tumbbad' claims to be a horror film and I am still in two minds about the fact whether it redefines the genre or actually introduces us to it. It is a film based on the concept of 'Greed beyond Fear' and how aptly have they explored its depth both cinematically and literally.

It is always our innate desire to pursue something that is beyond our capacity to comprehend. We are in a perpetual state of seeking the ultimate power, based on our perspective, and more importantly, keeping it to ourselves. It is the exposure to the things that we neglect, due to the inferior approach, that really makes us fearful.'Tumbbad' exposes us to such inner demons which pops up and make places in those vacant positions of our mind that should have been filled with the knowledge of what we were supposed to seek. And this is where it is frightening.

A human walks through the jungle periodically and all the trips they make turn out to be a success. The thought of expecting more out of those trips might actually increase the frequency of our visits but also deepen the footprints we leave behind each time for the beasts of the jungle to easily track us. It is not the Greed as much as the child inside us that refuses to stop and despite all the maturity, we follow a route beyond our limits of understanding. And this is where we falter. This is where the demon strikes because they can only overpower you once you give them that power.

It is the point where whims replace reality and we let them, hoping those whims will turn into our reality. We refuse to lose. We refuse to bow down. We accept the God in us but fail to recognise it. We let the external power of our own kind take over our mind sidelining the very reason of how we could be the fascination of those external entities. At the end of the day, this is what makes us mortal. This is why we must lose for the game to end. This is why we must cease to exist for the powers to vanish.

The more we know about the world, the more it expands itself. Or the more we know about the world, the more we realise the unimportance of continuous seeking and how important it is to be satisfied with our process and results. This dichotomy of the same idea is what probably gives birth to the thin line between right and wrong. It is not bad to be greedy as much as it is to greed for something without knowing. The meeting of these ideas and us, and what we could become with all our ignorance and clouded opinions is what makes 'Tumbbad' a compelling watch and a true horror movie.

You are not looking at Vinayak (a fantastic Sohum Shah) but your own self. You see Hastar and your inner conscious twitches. You know you are powerful but can also fathom your anti-power. You realise the powers in you but you cannot use them because you do not know how to channelize them. You will only realise it because you are watching it from a distance. Do not commit that mistake because 'Tumbbad' wants you to go inside that womb. Let 'Tumbbad' engulf you and you will come out as confused and blanked out as I was, probably. I need to watch it again to make more sense out of it. I am in shambles and my thoughts in disarray.

Andhadhun - Made in India

A lot has been said about 'Andhadhun' and how brilliant the movie is and I feel almost everything has been covered in the discussion. What I am trying to do here is not review the film or appreciate film but rather talk about the power of cinema through the world of 'Andhadhun'. It might have SPOILERS because it is an interpretation and might ruin the movie experience. IT HAS SPOILERS.

Andhadhun in the true sense questions our understanding of the word 'Truth'. What is 'Truth'? Is it something that we comprehend? Is it something that we believe in? Is it a perspective? Does it even exist?
In one of the famous Murakami novels, I read a line that goes like - "Do we believe in the truth or just in the things that we wish were true?" Andhadhun presents us with the same question.
It is a deep study of human psychology and philosophy. It talks about a character who pretends to be blind because people tend to shed their inhibitions in front of him. Thus, he can find the inspiration. He can see them naked on a psychological level or physically. Artists leave their home in the morning to find an inspiration and come back to their house again in the evening only to leave again, the next morning. This is what Ayushmann does throughout the film. He sees a rabbit stick and probably creates a story around it. He can focus on things that are important rather than varying his vision to inculcate unnecessary details. He can make people believe in the most unusual story. Everything is happening by chance yet everything is believable.

If one asks a psychologist about extracting information from the subconscious, the probable answer would be that it is not possible today but even if we could, it would just be pure chaos. To bring a meaning to that chaos, one would need a deeper understanding to solve those equations and this is where Raghavan comes in. This is a chaotic movie told with an orderly approach. Raghavan talks about manipulation, our incapability to overcome our emotions, our search for finding a solution and being content with it and above all, our inability to look beyond our own little world. This is where an artist like Akash comes in and weaves a story or a tune despite their blindness (that we perceive). We tend to feel that an artist is socially blind and confined to their own whims but what we don't understand is those whims are a byproduct of the dimension they notice within the human structure. Andhadhun is a prime example of 'What we see might not be the truth' or 'Every entity has its own truth'.
I still feel Raghavan was Akash and the audience was Apte. What I also felt was Akash was as much a musician as he was a storyteller. He found a sense of entropy around and gave them a form of a 'Tune' or a 'Story'. I wonder if he sometimes sits alone and laughs at the world and its mediocrity while an old lady, out of deep respect for God, hands him a note of a higher denomination believing it will reconcile her with the ultimate truth.
This is the part that differentiates the artist from a common man. They know how to keep the commoners, commoners. An artist has an ego to satisfy. An artist has the power to display. And they will. What we do is, unknowingly give in to those mediums and then when left awestruck try to polish our egos by giving it a boundary via our answers.

Also, I loved the film and if it does make it to international circuits, it should have an addition to its title for people who despise Indian cinema without knowing that a guy like Sriram Raghavan exists. Andhadhun - Made in India.