Kanu Behl’s Titli is a relentlessly dark, gut-wrenching view
of the NCR underbelly where security guards cannot secure us, the police don’t want
to secure us and we ourselves are not beyond making someone else insecure for something
extra. The malls, the real estate deals, the swanky cars, the plush colonies
and various slippery characters populate the landscape of Titli and all of them
are distressingly real.
Behl was Dibakar Banerjee’s assistant on two quintessentially
NCR films – Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye and Love, Sex Aur Dhokha – and his sharp perception
of modern life in the metropolis is evident throughout. In recent times, several
films – NH10 and Aurangzeb immediately come to mind – have gone beyond the
romance of Dilli and ventured into the places where malls and democracy both
end. Dibakar Banerjee’s two early films – Khosla Ka Ghosla and OLLO – were
satirical and therefore, had a lightness of touch. His next – LSD – was quite
brutal in its indictment of the mindset of the nation’s capital.
Titli is also
a similar film in that respect. It is not a Delhi film, it is an NCR film. From the unfinished constructions that give
hope of a better tomorrow to the crippling financial investment that is
required to secure that tomorrow, Titli has it all.
The story of a family of three car-jacking brothers and the
efforts of the youngest (Titli, played by Shashank Arora) to escape a life of crime is an exact
antithesis of the wholesome family values Bollywood is famous for portraying, institutionalized
by the producers, Yash Raj Films. The film’s tagline is “Har family
family nahin hoti” and the film manages to pack in pretty much every dysfunctional
trait one can think of.
Which brings me to – what I felt – was an issue with the
film. As someone (was it @bethlovesbolly?) pointed out on Twitter that after a
point, it seemed that one had to guess which unforeseen but completely
realistic calamity would befall the family next. Like really, how many skulls
must be hammered in before we can seek salvation? In a way, Titli is an
anti-KJo film – a minefield of dystopian <can’t think of an alliterative synonym
for ‘blasts’>.
Nevertheless, it is a strong debut for Kanu Behl and makes one
look forward to his next. Incidentally, it is titled Agra and about a
call-centre agent in love with a girl while no one is convinced she really
exists. Yeah, expect more from the Republic of Dystopia!
[Frivolous Footnote: The role of the father in Titli was
played by Lalit Behl, director Kanu’s father – an interesting case of which the
only precedent I could think of was Raj directing Prithviraj Kapoor (Awara) and
Randhir directing Raj (Kal Aaj Aur Kal). Anyone else?]
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