Thithi four generations of village drama

watched Thithi.I don't remember another movie that can be mistaken for a dry  documentary of life in an Indian village captured by Western eyes, but isn’t. It would have been just that if there wasn't a story teller. 

The cast I am told are amateurs. And if that be true, then the casting director needs a huge pat on their back. So easy are the portrayals by the characters that you don't think that they are acting. It is like the camera is capturing life- as it is.
  
The story teller tells it like the bearded character Gaddappa narrates his story in a long monologue. There is no drama. No gestures. Just plain narration very much like the director has told us the story. The shepherds all sit in front of him awestruck and bewildered until the end; when he says aloud that he wonders if all that he said was life as it had happened or his dream the previous night. The shepherds now don't know whether they were just taken for a ride or did they hear the deepest secrets of an old man that he probably is narrating for the first time. It is during this narration that the viewer would appreciate why Gadappa is the philosophical wanderer that he is- detached from the world. 
The director also leaves us with a similar feeling as the movie ends. Like Kavery wants Abhi to find her wherever she is and marry her, viewers will also go looking for the director and his movies. 

The movie starts with just the voice of Century Gowda who passes commentary on the passersby. And in that commentary he takes the viewer through what someone who has lived a 100 years has seen. Century Gowda was a very nice character that was being fleshed out, but he doesn't last long. He passes while passing urine. And then we are introduced to his near and dear ones. The viewer is given time to understand and appreciate the  relationships between the characters. 
The great grandson has his way of earning money, the grandson is struggling with his farm, the son is the philosophical wanderer. 

The movie is not just about the sons but also about a village and her people told without romanticising the village beauty or the people that live there . It is a story about the struggles - within and without- of every man  The priorities that men have at different ages. 

The young great grandson is happy go lucky and doesn't really sorry about squandering money gambling. He has a girl to follow, friends to drink with,sand to mine illegally and friends again to pull him out of trouble. .
The grand son is struggling to meet societal expectations. He wants the land which his father will not take the effort to write in his name. And so he has to find devious ways to make some money. 
The son has seen life and like he tells the shepherds to be happy with what you have, he is. Although he does steal a ₹100 from a stranger's pocket. 
This technically sound movie with a tight screenplay and wonderful cast is philosophical and yet laced with humour. It is so real that it blurs the borders of reality and story telling. 

Was that a movie that I watched? Or just last nights dream?

By sekhar raj 

Knight reviews