Tumbbad Trailer Talk: An Ancient Wada, Greed For Gold, And The Unspeakable Horrors That Lurk Beneath

'Sarkar mar gaya,' so begins the trailer of Tumbbad with a voiceover and a black screen as it proceeds to show us a woman and her sons leaving the village of Tumbbad for good. It's raining, and solitary trees and a hut dot the spare landscape of a lush, hilly Maharashtra.

But what happens to the treasure buried under the wada (ancient forts)? asks one of the sons: The old lady must know about it.

We don't see the old lady, only hear her creepy voice. We get a glimpse of the bowels of the cursed wada, with its cobwebs and vegetation, and see what a hell-hole it is. In a couple of scenes, it seems as if the wada is a living breathing thing, a beating organ; a passage that looks like live flesh covered with blood; a talking head embedded in its floor.

Only one person (Sohum Shah, who the child grows up to be) seems to have the courage to explore the wada in search of its mythical gold. The quest spans generations. The latter half of the trailer shows us Shah being married, and he has a child now but the search is still on. A Tale of Greed, the captions tell us. 

After getting only glimpses of its plot in the teaser, the trailer gives us a clearer idea of what Rahi Anil Barve's (and co-director Adesh Prasad) horror fantasy might be about. The film, produced by Sohum Shah, who plays the lead, and presented by Aanand L Rai, had its premiere at the recent Venice Film Festival. 

It will release in theatres on 12 October.

Watch the trailer here: