Thithi
A shrunken shrivelled centenarian of an old man is squatting on a pavement. He appears to be a man of no verbal restraint, as he passes the most audacious comments to passersby, children, men and women alike. Their dislike towards him is visible as they talk back in the same tone, disregarding his age, and the fact that he is the oldest man in the village and neighborhood. In the next five minutes, he drops dead and the entire village comes to life. Everyone is up and about, discussing the death of Century Gowda, the centenarian. Preparations start in full swing for the Thithi, the 11th day of his death and a feast to be held in his regard. Amidst all the hullaballoo, his son Gaddappa, on hearing about his father’s death is unnaturally calm. The beard man, as Gaddappa is often called, is a strange man with no particular aim as he walks about his village. From the moment he wakes up, his life is one of constant motion, as he travels the village farms, sneaking beedis from strangers and drinking cheap whisky.
His son Thammanna is much more worldly, and materialistic, as he aims to sell his father’s land and get cash, now that the patriarch is dead. Only problem is that Gaddappa won’t agree to come and sign the deal papers in an office. He just won’t agree to coming to an office and sit! He is restless and has other important tasks to tick off his bucket list, like roaming around and wandering, drinking and smoking. Thamanna’s son, Abhi, a teenager with raging hormones has other problems which only a girl can solve. He spends his days cutting timber with friends, and evenings roaming on his bike in the pursuit of a shepherd girl, Kavery.
Thammanna, frustrated with his seemingly uncooperative drunkard loon for a father, and the looming thithi, where he has to cater a feast for an entire village decides to sell the land, sans his father’s signature. The situations that follow, blur lines between reality and cinema. It is as if the events we see on screen may have happened in a faraway land, to which our only source is celluloid. The humor is uncontrived, as though to suggest, life is funny without trying too hard.
The story is set in the village of Mandya, in Karnataka, with real village people as the actors. However, you can hardly call them amateurs, as the audience is neck-deep into their mad world from the word go. The director, Ram Reddy, all of 26 years of age, has shown us how delving into the hinterlands for stories is cinematically significant for a diverse and culturally rich country like India.
Thithi, on the face of it may be a story of 4 generations of a family, and the events which transpire, following the death of the patriarch. But it is significant even on a macro level of scheme of things. Death is cataclytic in the way the story unfolds, serving the backdrop of this unwittingly hilarious film. A film which starts with death says more about life as it is; funny, messy, brutal, yet worth living. Gaddappa’s constant motion can be seen as the living force brimming on the rims of the chalice of death. His unworldly demeanor suggests that we are all alone on this journey, called life, and you may as well get moving before death digs up your grave.
Awards : Thithi won the Best Film honor at the 1st BRICS Film Festival (2nd September-6th September) 2016, after winning the National Award for the best feature film in Kannada language. It also won the best script writer and the best film under the Asia New Talent Awards category at the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival 2016 among many other accolades and awards.
Trivia : Thithi’s co-writer Eregowda is Channegowda’s (Gaddappa’s) grandson in real life.
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