Touching indifference

Sohum Shah in a still from Tumbad

Mumbai based film-maker Rahi Anil Barve, who makes his directorial debut with Tumbad, is all set to present an errie, moody and dark side of the pre – Independence era. Since there are very little dialogues in the film, it heavily relies on strong emotions and expressions. “The focus is not ‘showing’ a rainy village in 1918; it is to drag the viewer from his chair and throw him into that rainy village where he can smell the earth, and experience the events by staying close to the characters,” says Barve, adding that the film was shot with constant physical movements and comparatively few cuts.
Regarding the title of the film and its relation to the well-known Marathi novel Tumbad che khot, Barve says, “My film is not based on the novel. S.N. Pendse was a great writer and a contemporary of my grandfather — poet, composer and freedom fighter Amar Sheikh. After his demise, I was struggling for an apt title for my film, and I first borrowed it as a working title. It has simply stayed on. For me, Tumbad’s locations, the feel of its stuffy air, and the lonely, rainy atmosphere that defies the feeling of time’s passage is as central as its characters.”
In the four years, Barve stated that he got ample time to research the cultural milieu of British India in ‘20s, the economy, people, houses and vehicles of that time. He also got opportunities during that period to obsess over minute details, such as the decay of wood over 1,500-3,000 years or the paper that went in British currency notes in the period. To be produced by Recyclewala Labs, makers of the critically-acclaimed Ship of Theseus, Tumbad (named after a village) is a period-horror film about three generations of a Brahmin family in Pune.
While talking about his upcoming venture, Barve confirmed that his next project is a mythological thriller set in ancient India, titled Rakta-Bramhand; followed by his third film, Ashwalinga — a period-based risque musical comedy from the times of the Kama Sutra.