WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
A time to escape. With the desire to see a much more untroubled life, the road to make it come about can be fraught with challenges not easy to conquer, especially when it involves family. This might be even more truthful when the family you’re attempting to find some sense of separation from just happen to be criminals, and your own involvement has been key. Do you locate the out, or will it become the trap always sprung, keeping you ensnared, unable to change? Titli (Shashank Arora) is the youngest of three brothers, along with hotheaded Vikram (Ranvir Shorey) and Pradeep (Amit Sial), running a car-jacking ring that is out of control. Titli’s desire to get out of the business causes an arrangement to get him married to an unwilling but decidedly willful girl named Neelu (Shivani Raghuvanshi), hoping to settle him down. But, as Titli tries to make the most of the situation, it all seems to drag them all farther into regrets, deceit, shady deals, and manipulations that will force them all to look at who they really are and determine Titli’s future.
Next, my Mind:
If you’re looking to make it, you have to choose to debut sometime. This is the road as currently being traversed by up-and-coming South Asian filmmaker Kanu Behl, who made his own directorial premier through the film this review is covering, and who has already established himself therefore as a young artist to watch, as the more recent TV series “Dhoop Chhaon” along with two upcoming feature films, “Despatch” and “Agra“, are all allowing this newcomer an opportunity to not only continue to hone his craft, but ideally allow his name to travel outside the South Asian community and see the formation of an even larger audience here in the U.S. as well, which is something this critic supports wholeheartedly alone from seeing the sheer degree of Hollywood-level creatives the South Asian filmmaking realm has to offer. With actors such as Manoj Bajpayee and Priyanka Bose on the rosters of those new projects, I firmly believe we’re only seeing the beginnings of what we hope will be a highly accomplished career for Behl, who’s off to an excellent start.
Can there be an actual direction that leads to redemption, hope, true forgiveness, and an emancipation from the past when all paths that lead there would seem to only promise further exercises in greed, illicitly gained provision, questionable loyalty to an ultimately misguided family, and being tied to another whose only goal is to get out of it as well only to then be with someone else? All of this is explored with candidly unapologetic vigor and purpose in this feature film from writer/director Behl, writer Sharat Katariya, producer Dibakar Banerjee, co-producer Aditya Chopra, and executive producer Smriti Jain, immersing us once more in a seedier side of Delhi and the travails of one family’s bid to maintain their foothold in a criminal enterprise while somehow believing there’s still a way to live a semblance of a “normal” existence, brought to the forefront more when one of their own decides it’s time to leave–forever.
Seen through the eyes of the youngest of three siblings who represents the hitch in the rest of the car-jacking brotherhood’s “grander” plans, there’s assuredly nothing light-hearted about the dive into the heart of desperation and scheming that become the focal point of events as the elder brothers attempt to keep it all together by getting their trouble-making youngest get married, thinking this will rectify and remedy it all. What transpires in the wake of this decision moving forward defines the very core of the film as we suddenly see TWO very unhappy souls (thier moments of actual joy are SO fleeting but affecting) forced to work together to discover their own ideal ends come to pass, but the means to get there only bog them down in more strife and discontent, even when at least one of them IS making SOME headway at trying to be amicable in the relationship. Yet, we then see how the background of said character also comes roaring to the surface, causing its own mayhem, and reflecting the deeper-seated attitudes and twisted identity and acceptance he finds in his family, despite their corrupted thinking.
The concepts of broken homes, tainted ideas about what love is vs, what it should be founded on, watching individual dreams get threatened and shattered, the burden of never knowing what is real truth vs. self-serving platitudes, the destructive power of money’s hold over resolutions being sought, keeping one’s own moral compass from going too far off kilter, and returning to the familiar even when it could only spell future unrest, it’s all given its fair share of exposure throughout this film, and make no mistake, it is a dark film as a whole. There is, however, some glimmers of the hope and liberation being sought by Titli and Neelu especially, despite the highly dysfunctional “partnership” they end up in, and the finale of the project at least tries to deliver that belief they might just be happy together–maybe. Regrets also play a big part of Titli’s journey as well, and it may be the deciding factor that shines any light on the ever-present shade of events portrayed.
This critic realized that this is actually the sixth overall time witnessing Arora in a film, the third time within less than four months, and what strikes me is that of these more recent efforts I’ve seen, all the projects have been heavier thematically and not always filled with much joy, which for me sometimes is a difficult pill to swallow in constant doses. But, this is NOT at all to take away from the Arora’s individual performances, arriving here as the title character Titli, a young make genuinely wishing to get out from under the shady family business and just experience a normal life, only to be thwarted in his bid when older brothers arrange a marriage to simply try and keep him satisfied and around. What unfolds is utter chaos as Titli still endeavors to worm his way out, and the successes of any plans he and his deeply reluctant bride Neelu embark on remain quite unsure. It’s a great performance by Arora to embody yet another emotionally volatile character while still being an “everyman” as well, but the actor does pull it off with strength.
Raghuvanshi definitively makes her presence known with high levels of emotive force through her role as Neelu, a young woman who ends up, in her eyes, in one of the most unacceptable situations possible–being married to Titli when her heart is completely somewhere, and with someone, else. Yet, even in the disturbed state she’s in, she still finds a way to trust him enough to see if they can both end up with what they want. Yet, this coming about and being attained smoothly may not happen, and her introduction to the family business is FAR less than good. Through it all, Raghuvanshi displays superb poise and intensity. Shorey steals plenty of scenes through sheer, purposely audacious bravado and fiery attitude as the eldest brother Vikram, whose crazy, unstable, explosive temper and demeanor rule the family home through absolute intimidation. While he DOES seem to have the goal of just keeping the family afloat and cared for, his means to do so are hardly good for anyone, and Shorey’s believability enacting a real menace is excellent.
Sial likewise brings about a strong effort but does so with at least a little more purposeful restraint, befitting the character he plays, Pradeep, the middle brother of the trio and one who seems to at least TRY to have a sense of control and level-headedness amidst his older brother’s temper and his younger brother’s need to escape “the life”. But, his final commitment and dedication is still to the family, and so he goes along with Vikram’s ideas while still harboring the best for Titli. Lalit Behl appears as the patriarch of the family, who seems to have both joy for seeing the “business” he started being carried on by his sons, yet also might have and/or understand the hesitations about Titli’s involvement and desire to cut loose from it all. Steadfast to the family as a whole, how he’s seen in Titli’s eyes, even while still wanting ALL his sons to fully inherit the business, remains dubious. It’s a very subdued yet powerful role, and Behl plays it well for the screen time he gets.
Key supporting roles arrive through Harish Chhabra as Khanduri, the big boss behind the brother’s crimes who offers them a huge gig that could set them up for quite a while, but at what cost, Sumit Gulati as Pintu, a man Titli was trying to make an outside business deal with, Prashant Singh as Prince, Neelu’s well-to-do cousin with whom she is actually infatuated with and desires to be with, and Sarita Sharma as Sangeeta, Vikram’s long-suffering and estranged wife. So, in total, “Titli” may not have been my most favorite film to take in, not due to lack of solid story, overall execution, or acting, but more that its heavier mood and tone was sometimes a little hard for this critic to take in at the time. Its scrutiny of lawlessness vs. legal, machinations vs. morality, circumvention vs. condemnation, and just the desire to be about something else other than hurtful to others and ourselves are all facets that we might encounter in this world. Will WE have the fortitude to realize when enough is enough and make the right choice in the end?
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
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