Tumbbad was released in the year 2018 after 6 years of making. Though it failed miserably in the box office, many critics, filmmakers and even later audiences appreciated the movie for its genius. The movie went on to win Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography and was featured in many International Festivals winning multiple awards. Later multiple creators took inspiration from it, and made multiple movies in the same genre and this started a trend of gothic thrillers in Indian cinema.
Tumbbad was a movie that played and made use of multiple paradigms. Mythology and indigenous culture, Gothic settings, magic realism etc. were several aspects of them. The movie depended on its excellent direction and acting to invoke the elements of fear. Folklore and indigenous mythology was used in an exemplary way to weave a story around it. The main motif of showcasing human cardinal sin of greed was a witty maneuver. Overall, the movie turned out to be a masterpiece in Indian cinematic history.
This movie started what one can call a trend in the Indian film industry where other creators started creating plots woven around such indigenous and folk legends, practices and rituals. Some of the famous names are: Jallikattu (2019), Bulbbul (2020), Stree (2018), Kumari (2022) etc. The movie that rose to heights for its excellent work in this field earning positive critical reviews as well as massive box office collection was Kantara (2022). After its release we saw many tweets mentioning “Tumbbad walked so Kantara could fly” pointing towards Tumbbad being the predecessor of this genre. The trend didn’t stop there and continued in the form of Bramayugam earlier this year and Stree 2 is soon to follow the same.
Though it was not well received earlier, the later appreciation of the movie somehow managed to save the declining course of Indian horror movies. Good horror movies have always been sidelined by the audience but Tumbbad opened the doors for the creators to experiment in this genre. Although the style of Tumbbad is being used in many movies instead of experimenting, still the horror scene of Indian cinema has evolved for good.