Film: Tumbbad

For today, I had Tumbbad, on Amazon Prime - this is a Hindi horror film about people that come across what you might call cursed treasure.. The trailer has a strong Gollum vibe, with the treasure seeming to speak to its possessor in a similar voice to Gollum. "My precious", indeed.

Well, the treasure doesn't do much talking in the film itself, but the film is very good. Quite an original production, in my experience - but then, I haven't seen much Indian horror. The story hinges on the goddess of prosperity, who created the world, and whose benefices include gold, on the one hand, and wheat on the other. Story is (and this is made up), her first child was called Hastar, and was ferociously greedy - wanted it all for himself. Well, he managed to get the gold, but was blown to bits before he could get at the wheat. She managed to salvage what was left - so he still exists, perpetually rich, and perpetually hungry.. and no-one is to speak his name.

Cue the village of Tumbbad, where it almost always rains. Sign of the gods' displeasure. A dilapidated mansion houses a single old man, who is tended to by a downtrodden woman. Turns out the two little boys with her were fathered by him. They live nearby, and every night she has the unenviable job of feeding a sleeping old woman, chained up in a corner of the mansion. Yes, while she's asleep. This is what happens if you get too close to Hastar, it transpires - and if she isn't fed, she turns cannibal. She's immortal, and perpetually hungry. If she wakes, she can be put back to sleep by threatening her with Hastar.

Our hero is one of the boys. He is intrigued about the treasure, secreted somewhere about the mansion - but the mother gets them out of there asap, heads for the big city. Fast forward to when he's a grown-up, and she's died, so I guess he feels he doesn't need to keep his promise to her any more, not to return. So he goes in search of his fortune..

Very atmospheric, plenty of doom, gloom, and cobwebs. Always, there's a sense of tension - the process by which he retrieves the treasure is eventually revealed, and has a logic to it - and the moral (greed will be your downfall) is carried right through to the catastrophic finale, which quite creeps up on you, as you begin to wonder how they're going to end it. Highly recommended, for horror afficionados. Very, very interesting. Very, very creepy.

Tomorrow, I'll be looking to Amazon Prime again for Little Fires Everywhere, a miniseries with Reese Witherspoon. Less creepy, I daresay.