This week’s Hidden Gem will be the second Indian title to feature in the Hidden Gem series – a 2014 released film, Titli. This lesser known Bollywood flick was acquired for online streaming by Amazon Prime Video and was one of 2015’s most underrated movies. The neo-noir film first released in the Un Certain Regards section of the 2014 Cannes Festival before it dropped in Indian theaters, back in October 30th 2015.
Titli was written and directed by Kanu Behl and it was his directorial debut. The Love Sex Aur Dhokha writer wanted to talk about the volatility of a society, where violence lurks just underneath the surface. Kanu Behl is well known for many of his scripts and is one among the new generation of story tellers who are slowly bringing about a change in Bollywood – mainly in the way how films are being made and stories are told.
This movie follows a young man Titli, who is a prisoner of birth – a man stuck in seedy circumstances. His close-knit family are actually a group of violent gangsters who go around car-jacking in Delhi. Titli plans to escape his family and live a life without crime, but he gets caught by police while he crashes a car which was recently jacked by his brothers. His family find out about his plans and they get angry. They eventually force him to get married so that he has ties to his family and they can use his wife as a decoy for their future operations, but his bride Neelu becomes an unexpected companion and supports his plan of escaping from his family.
The movie is all about the circumstances of birth, fight for survival and to control ones fate and Kanu Behl has written a brilliant noir screenplay around these themes, which he made into an equally brilliant movie. Trying to escape one’s circumstances against insurmountable odds is what makes us human, and is exactly what this crime drama trying to show us. Try and try till you succeed, no matter the situation; a philosophical neo-noir thriller is what Titli is.
Titli is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
