Titli : Movie Review

One does not get to choose their family, and a family is often not a haven. The protagonist who shares his name with the film title, Titli, was raised by and lives with his father and two brothers, who lead by example, into a life of darkness. 

Director Kanu Behl's debut feature gives a real world insight into the parallel of the criminal life in Delhi NCR, in a manner that you probably wouldn't have seen before in Bollywood. Which makes it a bit difficult to review without sounding like one of those pretentious jerks who write reviews for a living.

 It is a family that eats together, and then goes out together. For a hearty share of violence, bloodshed and petty crime. Titli (Shashank Arora) is the youngest of three brothers who live with their father (played by Lalit Behl, the director's own father) in a lifeless hovel on the outskirts of the capital. Vikram (Ranvir Shorey), Pradeep aka Bawla (Amit Sial) and their father are people going nowhere very quickly, slowly stripping themselves of their 'humanity'. Mall guards and petrol pump attendants by day, carjackers by profession, spiraling towards more bloodshed in a deeply corrupt, defunct system. Titli had no choice when he was put into the profession to con commuters into slowing down or pulling over, has grown sick of this never ending cycle that has no future, and only certainty being that their situation will only get worse. He's been saving up to buy into a parking lot in an upcoming mall in UP, where he can be free of his current life. But things don't quite go to plan and he ends up with nothing. Again. It doesn't help that his brothers find out about his intentions to take off on his own, and for holding out on such a large sum that they say could have been 'put to better use for the family'.

Titli's story gets another chance after he is married to Neelu (Shivani Raghuvanshi), not because the family feels he needs a bride, but because a female would a good bait for more business: who would suspect a con when a fresh-faced girl is around?

 

However, acting out of their own compulsions to meet their own selfish needs, Titli and Neelu forge an alliance behind the family. This is probably Titli's best chance to attain his dream and be free from this endless nightmare, but it's not easy with new hurdles at every corner, often leading to brute violence.

To us, these characters are a reminder of a world that co-exists in our midst, one that we ignore but never forget while driving back home in the still of the night. Even if you haven't been to any such place in the capital, or encountered the people who inhabit these crowded bylanes, truth is that Titli could be about any city and its people. Maybe that's what makes this film so good. The part that it reminds the audience, of whichever city, of the very real darkness of violence and dysfunction that surrounds their ignorant bliss. Or the part that shows that an individual, by will and great sacrifice, does not have to stay bound to the kind of life he was born into, and for many, to live a normal mediocre clean life, too is a dream.

Every actor has been perfectly cast for their character, providing a great performance. The violence is gruesome at parts but necessary, the dialog is vulgar not for obscenity but for credibility, and the characters are often despicable, but real.