Tumbbad is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language Folk Horror film directed by Rahi Anil Barve. Starring Sohum Shah in the lead role as Vinayak Rao, it follows the story of his search for a hidden treasure in the early 20th century India village of Tumbbad, Maharashtra.
Tumbbad contains examples of:
- Anti-Hero: Vinayak is greed, hedonistic, and treacherous. He isn't a very good husband or a father. The only noble deed he ever does in the movie is sacrifice himself to help his son escape from Hastar.
- Body Horror: The fate of anyone touched by Hastar, including Vinayak himself, ultimately. Branches slowly sprout from their bodies, disfiguring them.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Though primarily a Folk Horror film, Tumbbad does include a monstrous god called Hastar who is dressed in gold and physically corrupts those he touches.
- Fate Worse than Death: Being touched by a god grants you immortality and the knowledge of an endless supply of gold. All you have to do is eat and sleep. However, it is actually a curse where you cannot die of natural causes and endure starvation, no matter how much you eat.
- Hastar was cursed with this by his siblings. They condemned him to remain imprisoned in their mother's womb for eternity, enduring perpetual starvation. They also erased Hastar's name from history and forbade his worship.
- Folk Horror: The film is presented as a story about a forgotten god who can be appeased by the proper rituals, but who bestows an horrific fate on anyone who lets their greed overcome their survival instinct.
- Greed: The central them of the film. Hastar was cursed for his greed. For generations, Vinayak's ancestors exploited Hastar's curse to obtain gold coins. Although Vinayak himself amasses enough gold coins to last for several generations, his insatiable greed proves to be his downfall.
- Gone Horribly Right: Vinayak is wonderstruck upon listening to his son's idea of creating more dolls of dough to lure Hastar, long enough to steal his loincloth containing an endless supply of gold. However, when Vinayak and Pandurang execute the idea, they are horrified upon being surrounded by multiple clones of Hastar. Vinayak becomes the bait to help his son escape. In the end, Vinayak does steal Hastar's loincloth. However, Pandurang is horrified upon witnessing Vinayak being afflicted by the curse. He refuses to take the loincloth and burns Vinayak to death.
- The Hedonist: As an adult, Vinayak indulges himself in alcohol and women upon acquiring a sizeable fortune. He also encourages his son, Pandurang to indulge in such a lifestyle. Pandurang enjoys it, for a while...
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the end, Vinayak sacrifices himself to the multiple manifestations of Hastar in order to allow his son to escape the well.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: It is disturbing to know that humans can be more evil than an ancient, infernal god...
- Me's a Crowd: The twist in the climax.
- Riddle for the Ages: If the gods took pains to erase Hastar's name from history, how did the residents of Tumbbad discover his existence in the first place? How did they discover the story of Hastar?
- Weaksauce Weakness: Hastar is vulnerable to flour. Although he can't be killed by flour, Hastar cannot cross closed boundaries drawn by flour. He can eat flour, but only if someone offers it to him. He can't touch flour of his volition
