Tumbbad

Tumbbad is a 2018 Indian period folk cosmic horror film. It was directed by Rahi Anil Barve and Anand Gandhi, with a screenplay by Mitesh Shah, Adesh Prasad, Barve, and Gandhi. Sohum Shah plays the lead character, Vinayak Rao, who searches for a hidden treasure from the 20th century in the village of Tumbbad, located in Maharashtra. The film had its premiere in the critics' week section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival, marking the first time an Indian film was screened there. It was released in theaters on 12 October 2018.

The story is narrated by Vinayak Rao. It begins with the goddess of prosperity, who is the mother of all gods and the source of endless gold and grain. Her son Hastar took all her gold, but when he tried to take the grain, the other gods destroyed him. The goddess saved him by hiding him inside her womb, on the condition that he be forgotten. However, the people of Tumbbad built a temple for Hastar, angering the gods, who cursed the village with endless rain.

In 1918, Vinayak’s mother is a widow and the mistress of the zamindar Sarkar. She hopes to gain a share of his hidden treasure. Vinayak and his brother Sadashiv are Sarkar’s illegitimate children. They live with a disfigured, starving old woman—supposedly their grandmother—chained in a separate room. One day, Sadashiv falls from a tree and is taken away for help. Vinayak tries to feed the old woman in exchange for information about the treasure, but she escapes and attempts to eat him. He invokes Hastar’s name, putting her to sleep. Sarkar and Sadashiv die, and Vinayak and his mother leave for Pune.

Fifteen years later, Vinayak returns to Tumbbad seeking Sarkar’s treasure. The old woman is still alive, with a tree growing from her body. She agrees to reveal the treasure’s location if he ends her suffering. She leads him to the goddess’ womb, inside Sarkar’s mansion, and teaches him how to retrieve the gold. Inside the womb dwells Hastar, who has been hungry for eons because he was denied the goddess’ grain. Vinayak descends with a rope and draws a circle of flour for protection. He lures Hastar with a flour dough doll, steals gold coins from Hastar’s loincloth, and escapes. He burns the old woman and repeatedly travels between Pune and Tumbbad to collect more coins, selling them to his friend Raghav.