Titli revisited

-


Titli released in the summer of 2014 after having earned rave reviews in the international film circuit. A heavily awarded neo-noir and Kanu Behl's debut film, it is definitely not for the faint hearted. It opens to a title of the film in blood red and that pretty much sums up the sequence of events. Titli has a very Fargo kind of feel from the Coen brothers. Fargo plays out in the cold and mountainous North Dakota and Titli is set in the very rustic and dusty part of Delhi. It does intermingle with the narrow and shabby by lanes of North East Delhi where the buildings and the people are virtually breathing down on each other. Titli takes us into the lives of three brothers and their father. The relationship amongst them breathes the parochial and patriarchal mindset which is to say the least, toxic. The elder brother played brilliantly by Ranvir Shorey understands only one thing which is what he inherited from his father and thereon. The language of physical abuse and an extremely foul mouth to suppress the latter. In an opening sequence he does not budge away from hitting and cursing the delivery boy who was merely trying to follow orders. That 10-15 minutes of sequence sets the tone for the rest of the film. 

The other two brothers played by Amit Sial and in his debut performance, Shashank Arora as the protagonist. They live pretty much in the shadow of the elder brother. And there is the father, played by Lalit Behl (father of director Kanu Behl) who simply is the master of all things foul and wrong in the mess. His subtle undercurrents are enough to signify the relationship that the four have within themselves and with the outside world. And to top it all, there is the photo frame of the father's father which is central to all the narration with an incense stick permanently lit in front of "it". That is an oxymoron perhaps to the proceedings. The other subtle and fantastic part of the plot is the concentrated effort that family members make in cleaning their teeth. It is a metaphor to the cleaning attempts that they are making in their characters, perhaps. 

A car jacker family which does not budge even for a second in committing crime and go to any heinous length to achieve their goals. To the outside world it is a deep and disturbing and dysfunctional family and any outsider who has a brush with them, is bound to perish. And, this is what happens, when  the youngest member of the family is married off to a girl from the neighboring locality. Shivani Raghuvanshi in her debut role is promising and fits the character to the tee. Her compromised relationship of the past and her forced marriage into this deep and dark and disturbing family is perhaps the abyss she was waiting to delve into. And yet in that abyss she clutches onto the last hope in the family, her husband.

Titli is brilliant for its casting, the cinematography, the amazing backdrop of the dark and deep Delhi, the amazing camera work. Infact, the location especially the house where the three brothers live with their father literally chokes you. The walls, the props and the entire house is virtually so claustrophobic that it suffocates even the performers. In scene after scene as viewers you begin to feel the agony of the characters and the background seems to bring in more of that. 

In a moment from the film where the elder brother is beating, black and blue, his youngest one, the sequence brings out the essence of what Titli is all about. The camera refuses to leave the tension and the angst of the elder one and yet one feels for the younger brother. And then, in another moment the younger one does not budge in being a party to a heinous crime being committed by the other two brothers and his nonchalance to the proceedings. The pendulum keeps on swinging between the wrong and the not so wrong and you are left to judge for yourself. It is a society which is what in Pataallok, (the web series) Inspector Hathi Ram Chaudhry declares as this part of the world as Pataallok where the lowest ebb of the society resides. And there are no caregivers here. You are on your own. It is a riveting film and should not be given a miss. The earnestness of it all is reflected frame by frame and it is the brilliance of Kanu Behl and team to put forth without being preachy, judgmental and most of all regretful. And thank you Dibakar Banerji for backing this project. 

It streams on Prime. Go watch!           


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dhoom 3: Overrated, Over-hyped, and an over the top Aamir Khan

-
Image
Coming back to writing a piece after a very long time. I think about 3 months. Unfortunately, there was not a single film worth mention that released between now and September that is worth a shot. For that matter there is nothing in 2013 that is actually worth a mention. There were so MANY films and so much of hype and so much of marketing built around these films, but each one was a disappointment and perhaps a bigger one preceding the other. We come to that in a recap of 2013, probably as a next piece. But for now, it is Dhoom 3. What to write? What to say? Frame after frame it is Aamir Khan and not one but two, did I give out the suspense? Well nothing much in giving it away, as there is nothing at stake in the movie to give it away. YRF, Vijay Krishna Acharya, and everybody involved in the process of making the movie seems more enamored than anything else with the lead star. Makes you feel bad for Jai Dikshit and Ali. And as luck would have it, the only parts of the movie wh
Read more

Ramu Kaka, the family Physician, Kheer, Silk Gown et al...

-
Image
  Cinema is a medium to convey a message; message which are verbal or visual based. It has the power to alter narrative or perhaps the discourse too. In the 50's 60's and even more pronounced in the 70's and 80's film stars commanded a huge influence on the audience. Hair style, clothes and accessories were copied by audience blindly. The Sadhana Cut became a famous hairstyle or the bouffant of Asha Parekh or the Sharmila Tagore style eye liners; even the men folk were not left behind. The ear hiding hairstyle of Amitabh Bachchan or the bell bottom or the unbuttoned shirt (only the first 2-3 buttons) went on to be cult classics. But, this rage was/is actually a global phenomena. It happened across the world and it still continues to create a sense of dystopian world which audience are more than happy to lap up.  In more recent times, two Hindi films, Dil Chahta Hai and later Zindagi Na Mile Dobara went on to change the way how youth looked at lifestyle and travel. Infac
Read more

Buno Haansh: If you have read the story, don't go

-
Image
Like I said in the title, if you have the read the original, which I think came out in the last or last to last year, Sharodiya Shonkha, do not watch the film as it is a complete let down. But if you have not read the original by Samaresh Majumdar, the movie is worth a dekko. The way different characters starting from the protagonist Amal to the characters, Shohag, Rijula and even all sundry characters develop are no where close to the original. What further adds to the agony, the climax scene which has been altered keeping Dev's image into account, which is unfortunate. The film to put it simply lacks the desired drama and the suspense, which if one has read the book will understand. It looks like a narration currently and there are moments where the film falls in a trap of trying to do justice to the book and the creative license it wants to use. Perhaps, this trap always remain when one tries to adapt a story or a classic novel into a cinema format. Some of the classic n
Read more