Hello everyone, and welcome back to Marvelous Videos for another ballistic video. Today we have an extremely horrifying story for you. However, as terrible as the picture may be, it is surrounded by a number of intriguing stories. It took the filmmaker six years to complete the film. It has been a very long time indeed.
Tumbbad is a horror film in Hindi that was released earlier this year. We shall soon find out why it took them six years to develop a horror picture, directed by Rahi Anil Barve. It was the first Indian film to screen during the Venice Film Festival’s critics’ week.
It is not your typical horror story, to be sure. It is equally despicable, as it is steeped in mythological folklore. It is a stunning film set in the 1920s that follows three generations of a single-family as they become entangled in greed, desperation, and the worship of an ancient god. Oh, and there is also a monster.
Tumbbad has provided us with a fantastic example of how to integrate horror with traditional stories in an unusual setting. The film does an excellent job of creating a realistic and genuine world. Obviously, it is a monster horror picture, but there are so many relationships that are explored, and all of the human drama that we witness lends an even more dreadful touch to the film, making it even more thrilling.
Tumbbad was nominated for eight honors at the 64th Filmfare Awards, one of the most prestigious organizations honoring Hindi-language Bollywood movies. The categories of Best Film, Best Cinematography, and Special Effects were among those nominated. After seeing the film, you will not be shocked to learn that it won three awards, one of which was for Best Cinematography.
The god Hastar is a direct reference to the Hastur from Lovecraftian lore in the film. The original script, written by the director, is loosely based on a story recounted to Barve by a friend in 1993. And this story was written by horror writer Narayan Dharap from Marathi. Barve penned the initial script of the film when he was only 18 years old, in 1997. The film is about much more than just a God. This god appears to be something of a monster. What, though, does a monster have to do with a poor family in a little village?
So, let us see what horrifying events occur in this film.
Tumbbad: A horror of greed
The film begins with the narration of the first-born son of the Goddess of Prosperity and how his actions led him to become this evil monster called Hastar. So, the ancient tale tells us that because he was evil, the goddess did not want anyone to worship Hastar or include his existence in any religious texts. He was to remain forgotten forever.
As this story goes, looks like we have the monster of our film. And here is a little trivia for you. The title of the film is borrowed from Shripad Narayan Pendse’s novel “Tumbadche Khot”. The film is told in three chapters, and according to Rahi Anil Barve, this chapter division is a metaphor indicating the journey of India as we know it today.
The first chapter begins in 1918. And someone is about to remember Hastar. We are in the village of the protagonist Vinayak Rao, Tumbbad, a small village in Western India on the banks of the Jagbudi River. This is the place where Vinayak’s ancestors built a temple for Hastar. A lot of darkness surrounds the village, and it looks like it is always raining in Tumbbad. As it turns out, after Hastar’s temple was built, the anger of all the gods and goddesses has fallen upon Tumbbad in the form of never-ending rain.
Oh, and guess what, Tumbbad, the city actually exists, but of course the folklore is not present anywhere.
So, in Vinayak’s house, there seems to be something locked in a room that scares him, his brother, and his mother. At first, when his mother goes inside the room to feed this thing, it almost feels like they are living with a monster, so you might think that is Hastar. But guess what, that is actually Vinayak’s grandmother, and they are supposed to feed her or else she wakes up.
But what will happen even if she does wake up? Well, we soon find that out when Vinayak is left alone with her. She tricks him to go inside her room and attacks him. She looks almost like a monster, with gory eyes and sticks poking out of her face. A really horrifying look indeed. Another twist here is that if you say “Sleep, or else Hastar will come”, she will immediately fall asleep. So, looks like this must be some curse she has to live with.
They also constantly talk about Hastar’s treasure, which is supposed to be in their village and belongs to their family since they were the ones who brought back Hastar. But until his death, Vinayak’s father never found this treasure and so, they finally decide to leave the village and move away to Pune.
And remember the curse of Tumbbad experiencing rain all through the year, well, they shot the film over four monsoons to get capture the effect. That is definitely insane!
We are then taken 15 years into the future, 1933 where chapter two begins. A grown-up Vinayak has come back to Tumbbad to look for Hastar’s treasure which he considers to be his generational wealth. And the unthinkable happens. We soon discover that his old monster-like grandmother is still alive. Although in a more skeleton-like form, with a beating heart out of the body, she still talks. After constantly asking her to tell him where this treasure is, she finally gives in and asks him to burn her in return, because all she wants is peace from her suffering.
So, over the period, Vinayak would always come to Tumbbad for a few days and return home to his wife in Pune with a few gold medallions. At this point, we still don’t know where exactly this treasure is. Soon, a co-worker, Raghav, starts getting suspicious about the increasing number of medallions he brings. Wondering where it comes from, he follows Vinayak to Tumbbad.
Now, this is when we see the real horror of Hastar. Deep underground, what looks like a hollow cave, with red walls which seem almost like a womb, lives Hastar, who appears when presented a doll made of dough. And to take away the gold from his loincloth, Vinayak forms a circle made of grain, throws the doll, and while Hastar eats, he tears the loincloth and collects as many gold medallions as he possibly can.
Wow, that sure is a scary task, even if it has helped his family get rid of poverty.
We now have chapter three of the film, 1947 and it is independent India. Vinayak teaches his son Pandurang how to enter the cave womb and grab the gold as quickly as possible. He then takes him to the Tumbbad mansion to practice going down inside the cave and tells him not to bring the dough doll. But well, like any kid, Pandurang secretly brings a dough doll and Hastar attacks. They barely make it out alive without being bitten by Hastar. If they had, the curse would have turned them into a creature exactly like Vinayak’s grandmother.
Pandurang then plans to make multiple dough dolls to keep feeding Hastar, so that they can steal his loincloth full of gold. But they are about to be in a lot of danger. Several clones of Hastar appear for each doll they have. With no other option, Vinayak ties the dolls to his body to lure all the clones, allowing his son to make it back alive. Pandurang returns to the surface when they are all gone, only to see that his father has turned into a creature. And so, he sadly tells his father to sleep, or else Hastar will come, and then sets him on fire.
A great story with great actors, literally made this horror film worth the watch. And boy is it scary to give you lots of goosebumps. Well, let us find out what exactly is the story of our demon god, Hastar.
Hastar – History, and Folklore – Explained
So, we get to know a lot about Hastar at the beginning of the film. It is a tale of the powerful earthen Goddess of Prosperity. As the name suggests, this goddess is said to have unlimited grain and gold. We see the figure of the goddess with a lot of hands. With one hand, she is giving out plenty of grains and with the other, she is giving gold. The Earth is her womb, and we find out that when the universe was created, she gave birth to 160 million gods and goddesses. Something only a divine deity could do, right!
Well, Hastar is her firstborn and the most beloved. As time went on, Hastar got extremely greedy for his mother’s grain and gold because he wanted it all for himself. So, he first tried to steal all her gold, and of course, he was successful. That is why the film talks about his treasure because all of the gold is now in his possession.
But when he tried to steal the grains, the other gods and goddesses, his siblings, found out about his theft and obviously wanted to destroy him. So, they blast him into fine particles in order to stop him. But before they could destroy his entire existence with one last explosion, the Goddess saved his remaining bits of particles by imprisoning it in her womb for eternity.
So, this is where the fallen son now lives. He looks like a male figure whose skin has been torn off. A blood-red creature, wearing his shiny and huge golden crown, living inside a womb-like cave pit. He appeared in the village of Tumbbad because they began to worship him, which woke him up from his long sleep. And when awake, he is always hungry for the grain that he was denied.
His curse is of course the curse of hunger. When he bites a human, they become immortal but still age and also can die through some other ways. A constant need to feed consumes these cursed individuals. This curse is so powerful, that the hunger even makes them want to eat the flesh of other human beings. That sounds deadly. No doubt about how scared Vinayak must have been when he was alone with his grandmother.
Hastar can also detect the presence of grain within 120 feet of him. He can tell which place has the most amount of flour and it can sense the direction of that place. But he does have a drawback, if a sheet or anything covers the grain, he will not be able to find it. That is why, we saw in the film that until Vinayak took out the dough doll from his bag, after going inside the womb, Hastar did not come out.
What makes him more dangerous is some of his other abilities. So, magic has no effect on him because he can resist the spells that you cast at it. He can also, apparently climb any surface, even the upside-down ceilings and he definitely moves fast. You will not imagine that Sohum Shah, the actor who played the role of Vinayak Rao, actually had to gain 18 kilos for his character. And since the film took six years to complete, he literally maintained that weight for all those years.
Hastar is an evil creature that clearly shows us how greed and desperation can lead to our downfall. If this can happen to a god prince, well, then it can easily happen with humans as well.
Is there going to be Tumbbad 2?
Sohum Shah, the lead actor, and the producer of Tumbbad has not given any confirmation about a sequel to the film. But in an interview, he did assure the horror fans that he has given a lot of thought about making Tumbbad a franchise. So, if the next movie is made, it could either be a sequel, or even a prequel to Tumbbad because it will be a whole new world, with lots of different interesting characters.
It looks like, the writers are still looking for a good idea for the next film because they obviously want it to be as good as this one. But the fans still have to wait a bit longer, as nothing has been said so far.
Hastar’s story comes to us from an old book collection of stories by Narayan Dharap which is titled Anolkhi Disha 3, and the story is called Aaji. The shooting for the film was done without any sunlight on the Red Camera in digital format. And believe it or not, Tumbbad was shot in a lot of different locations across Maharashtra, India. Some of which were villages of the Satara district, and the womb, that was created in a set in Mumbai.
With such an incredible star cast and production team, and the film being re-shot as well as re-written, director Rahi Anil Barve has definitely done a wonderful job of creating this horror film that leaves us scared and clenching our fists pretty much throughout the film.
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