I had read something about the film a week or 2 back and it seemed like it might be interesting. So, I gave it a shot. Ultimately, it felt like an entertaining watch.
THE MAIN CAST:
Sohum Shah aka Vinayak
THE ESSENTIAL PLOT
There used to be a goddess, "Poorti Ki Devi" who gave birth to 16, 000 or more gods and goddesses when the universe was first expanding. Our planet is also pretty much her creation, "Hamari dharti unki kokh mein basa hua hain." I suppose she is what we refer to as "Mother Earth". This goddess loved her first born, "Hastar" the most. She was also the goddess of food and wealth.
When she was bestowing foodgrains and gold, out of his own greed, "Hastar" took possession of all the gold. He intended to do the same with foodgrains / anaj, but all the other gods and goddesses decided to unleash their anger on him. "Hastar" was exiled to some secluded place so that he could do no such thing. The mother goddess decided to rescue him, with the condition that he wouldn’t be remembered by anyone and nobody would worship him. They say, "Hastar" carries a lifelong regret of being deprived of food, as a result and has a cumulative hunger (of all the years he was deprived of food) he wants to satiate.
But in the years to come, in a small village called "Tumbadd" in Maharashtra, the villagers constructed a temple in memory of "Hastar". The gods were angered by this and bestowed Tumabadd with constant rain, as an expression of their resentment. That’s why "Tumbadd" has constant rain. Vinayak is one such person in this village, who lives with his mother, brother and grandmother who has a demonic hunger when hungry and may even resort to cannibalism w.r.t. her own family. Vinayak and his family know about the legend of "Hastar" and myth has it that his grandmother’s current state is owing to a curse by "Hastar". There is a myth about all the gold that "Hastar" had, being located somewhere in the temple. But yet it had eluded many who visited the temple. In a sudden turn of tragic events, Vinayak has to leave the village with his family.
But Vinayak comes back to Tumbadd years later as a grown man owing to his own avarice for Hastar’s gold. As the years go by, he gets richer by apparently unknown means and often trades gold coins with a trader, claiming it is his ancestral property. But the trader, out of suspicion, once follows Vinayak to Hastar’s temple and a point from where he disappears and emerges with several gold coins. The trader tries his own hand in possessing the same, only to lose his life to some apparent unearthly power hidden in the depths of the earth. Vinayak has grown rich and greedy meanwhile, having a mistress, a wife and a few sons, whom he keeps happy by means of his gold coins. He even subjects his children to a weird training to acquire the gold coins. Even they don’t know what they are being trained for.
Vinayak has been rich for all these years, owing to a secret conveyed to him about acquiring Hastar’s treasure in a most risky ordeal, by his demonic, cursed grandmother before she chose to die. In a risky move, Vinayak once successfully takes one of his children along to acquire the gold coins, avoiding all dangers while doing so. Encouraged by the same, the child suggests a method by which they could acquire more gold coins at one go for which they would have to carry multiple gifts of food into the place from where they would acquire the gold, especially considering the government wants to close down the area soon.
Will they succeed? What is the demonic / unearthly power that lies deep in the depths of the earth because of which Vinayak dreads his gold acquiring missions, despite all his success? Because of whom his trader friend meets his death? Rather than me spoiling the suspense, It would only be fair if you watch the film to discover it yourself.
THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT THE FILM:
STORY: It works well as a film which most would regard as a supernatural horror / thriller. It takes itself very seriously. The story is what carries the film, the most, I feel. It is a uniquely mysterious one, well suited to be a film of this genre.
DIRECTION & EDITING: The direction is good. They managed to finish all of this within 2 hours. That means the director was succinct in his choices to depict what was necessary and redundant matter was left out. Because of the setting of the film, there were not much special effects required to be in this kind of film. Cinematography was good in general.
ACTING: The acting was good. But there were few parts where it could’ve been marginally stronger.
SCORING: The scoring is generally significant in these type of films. Here, it is kind of one dimensional, but effective.
BEST SCENES: Best horror scenes, some of them involved Vinayak’s grandmother, before she died. Others involved avatars of "Hastar" or scenes where Vinayak and others descend into the depths of the earth.
Vinayak shutting the "Sindook" like entrance to the final descent to block the demons reminded me of "Ash" trying to confine the "evil demons" in his basement, from the film, "Evil Dead".
The avatars of "Hastar" themselves reminded me somewhat of "Rakta Chamunda", a form of Kali worshipped in certain parts of India. Except they were more animalistic.
MORAL: Not all movies necessarily have a moral. This one clearly has some, which are not complex.
-> To be realistically ambitious is one thing. But to be overtly greedy, ultimately leads to your doom, one way or the other.
-> If you do believe in a god, believe in them as a "god". Do not take for granted.
PARTS WHICH MAYBE COULD’VE BEEN BETTER: I think why the statement, "So Ja, warna Hastar aa jayega!" works well is never explained explicitly. But looking at the trends, it appears to work on people cursed / bitten by the avatars of Hastar.
I understand why the child had to set his parent on fire, in the end. But he seemed quite vapid / inert / feelingless while doing so. Realistically speaking, it would be a bit difficult to do, in a real scenario.
The "circle" Vinayak created around himself at the utmost depths with the red environs, was supposed to keep the demons at bay. It did, but what was it which had such an effect? They could’ve delved deeper into that aspect, since they do so in most other aspects.
I don’t think of it as a remake / copy of any thing necessarily. It was just a well made genre film in itself, for those interested in this kind.