Titli (2014 film)
Titli | |
---|---|
Directed by | Kanu Behl |
Written by | Sharat Katariya Kanu Behl |
Produced by | Aditya Chopra Dibakar Banerjee |
Starring | Shashank Arora Shivani Raghuvanshi Ranvir Shorey Amit Sial Lalit Behl |
Cinematography | Siddharth Diwan |
Edited by | Namrata Rao |
Music by | Karan Gour |
Production companies | Yash Raj Films Dibakar Banerjee Productions Pvt. Ltd. |
Distributed by | Yash Raj Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 124 minutes |
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Titli (transl. Butterfly) is a 2014 Indian
In Titli, Behl captures the volatility of a society where violence lies uneasily just below the surface. The directorial debut film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,[3][4] The trailer was released on 29 September 2015.[5][6][7][8] The film was released in India on 30 October 2015.[9]
The international sales partner of the film is Westend Films.[10]
Plot
Titli is the youngest member of a violent car-jacking gang in Delhi with his brothers, oldest brother Vikram and middle brother Pradeep a.k.a. Bawla. The film opens with Titli inspecting a parking lot of an under-construction mall in East Delhi. His friend Pintu tells him that his fortunes will change once he buys the parking lot at a price of Rs. 3,00,000. Titli plans to escape from his family and their line of work. While attempting to escape the clutches of his brothers with the moneyafter a car-jacking operation, Titli accidentally crashes a stolen car before a police checkpoint. This results in Pradeep and Titli getting nabbed by police. When they are released the next day, Titli finds out that the police have taken the money from his bag and he admits to his brothers that he was planning to run away and invest the money in a parking lot business.
Vikram forces Titli to marry Neelu to help control him and also to introduce a woman into the gang to be used as a decoy and cover. Neelu, though married to Titli, pines for her lover Prince, a wealthy married man she is having an affair with. One night, after witnessing a bloody jacking operation of her brothers-in-law, Neelu tries to escape from her family and gets caught by Titli. Titli supports Neelu's plans to leave him for Prince if she gives Titli Rs 2,50,000 from her personal bank account. Neelu takes Titli to meet Prince, and shows him that she is in a serious relationship with him, in spite of him being married. Prince is planning to divorce his wife for Neelu. Meanwhile Vikram's estranged wife Sangeeta comes and demands divorce from Vikram. Vikram is forced to sign the document by her lawyer who admits that she has the evidence of Vikram indulging in domestic violence with Sangeeta. Sangeeta also demands an alimony of Rs. 5,00,000 from Vikram. Titli's father initially proposes the idea of wiring the money of Neelu's FD, which Vikram refuses. Neelu asks Titli to deliver a birthday gift for Prince. But at Prince's house, he finds out that he is actually cheating on Neelu, in spite of being happy with his wife. Titli confronts Prince about it, who ends up blackmailing him for his money. Titli and Neelu request Sangeeta for an extension of the alimony deadline, but she refuses. Finally, they are given an opportunity of earning Rs. 20,00,000 by killing a big industrialist by a politically connected cop. Titli drops Neelu to her parents' residence and takes off with all the cash she gave him. Simultaneously, Titli anonymously reports his brothers to the police. After approving the parking lot deal with Pintu, he changes his mind and demands his money back by threatening to shoot Pintu's boss with a gun he stole from Vikram. In the end, Titli returns home and severs ties with his father and leaves with his belongings. Neelu finds out that Prince was never planning to leave his wife for her, and Neelu and Titli get back together.
Cast
- Shashank Arora as Titli
- Shivani Raghuvanshi as Neelu
- Ranvir Shorey as Vikram
- Amit Sial as Pradeep
- Lalit Behl as Daddy
- Prashant Singh as Prince
- Eknoor Chawla as Daughter
Production
Development
Behl, who co-wrote and also assisted director
In 2012, the script of the film was selected for NFDC Film Bazaar's Screenwriter's Lab and won the Post-Production Award at Film Bazaar's Work-In-Progress Lab in 2013.[14] It also won an award for Best Work-In-Progress Lab Project and was selected for Film Bazaar Recommends, where the 2014 Cannes Film Festival selection committee first saw the film.[11]
Filming
For the lead roles, relative newcomers Shashank Arora and Shivani Raghuvanshi were selected. Actors Amit Sial and Ranvir Shorey were chosen to play the role of two elder brothers to Titli's character. Next, he decided to cast his own father Lalit Behl, who is a Delhi-based director and actor, for the role of the patriarch of the family, considering the film itself was based on his early life experiences.[11]
The film was shot across various locations in Delhi.[12] During filming, he allowed the actors to explore the scenes and improvise as no scripts were brought to the set. The production team redesigned a house to give a claustrophobic feel to the family home, where much of the filming was done, to provide a contrast from the expansive real world outside, which the protagonist is trying to escape into. For this purpose, rooms were made smaller, the entrance was made labyrinthine, and even the natural light was reduced in the rooms, so that the tube light haze could add to the effect.[11]
By early May 2014, the movie's post-production was completed, ahead of its Cannes premiere due in the same month.[13]
Reception
Box office
The film collected ₹1.75 crore (US$220,000) nett in its first week.[15]
Critical reception
The film has a
Rohit Vats of
International Film Festivals attended
- 2014 Cannes Film Festival[24]
- 5th Beijing International Film Festival[citation needed]
- 13th Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles[25]
- Melbourne International Film Festival[26]
- Rio de Janeiro International
- International Film Festival of Colombo
- Zurich Film Festival[27]
- Filmfest Hamburg[28]
- Festival international du film indépendant de Bordeaux (FIFIB)
- BFI London Film Festival[29]
- Chicago International Film Festival[30]
- Philadelphia Film Festival
- Seattle South Asian Film Festival[31]
- Hawaii International Film Festival
- San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival (SFISAFF) by 3rd-i Films
- AFI Fest, Los Angeles
- South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF), New York[32]
- Black Movie Festival, Geneva
- International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands[33]
- Gothenburg Film Festival, Sweden[34]
- Festival du film d'Asie du Sud Transgressif (FFAST), Paris
- Gijón International Film Festival, Spain[35]
Awards
Wins
- Critics Prize at FIFIB, Bordeaux [when?]
- Best Film at Seattle South Asian Film Festival[31]
- NETPAC Award at Hawaii International Film Festival
- Best Film at SAIFF, New York,[32]
- Best International Film at Malatya International, Turkey,[36]
- Best Actress and Best Film, Gijón International Film Festival, Spain,[35]
- Audience Award at Festival du Film d'Asie du Sud Transgressif (FFAST), Paris.[37]
- Best Foreign First Film (Critics Award) at French Syndicate of Cinema Critics 2016
Nominations
See also
- Variety: Film Review: ‘Titli’
- Screen Daily: Titli
- The Hollywood Reporter: 'Titli': Cannes Review | Hollywood Reporter
- 4:3: Titli
References
- ^ "Yash Raj Films". Yashrajfilms.com. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- ^ Ramnath, Nandini. "Difficult fathers, brutal sons, conniving wives: meet Titli and his family". Scroll.in.
- ^ "After 'Titli', 'True Love Story' at Cannes film fest". Livemint. 22 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- ^ "2014 Official Selection". Festival de Cannes 2014 (International Film Festival). Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- ^ "'Titli' - Movie Review". No. Post.Jagran.com. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ Titli Trailer, Beta News India, 29 September 2015.
- ^ "Movie Review of Titli". No. Inextlive.jagran.com. Inext. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ "TITLI Movie Review: For those who love their cinema 'real' it cannot get better than TITLI". Glamsham. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ "'Titli' - Movie Review". No. Mid-Day.Com. Mid-Day. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ Barraclough, Leo (17 April 2014). "CANNES: WestEnd Films Boards Un Certain Regard Entry 'Titli'". Variety. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
- ^ a b c d Dipti Nagpaul (4 May 2014). "Ties That Bind". The Indian Express. pp. 1–3. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- ^ a b "'Titli' stems from personal experiences: Kanu Behl". The Times of India. 13 May 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- ^ a b "Feeling of 'Titli' going to Cannes yet to sink in: Kanu Behl". Business Standard. 13 May 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- ^ "YRF's Titli to compete at Cannes Film Festival". India Today. 13 May 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- ^ "Boxoffice". Archived from the original on 12 November 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
- ^ "Titli (2014)". Rottentomatoes.
- ^ Weissberg, Jay (12 September 2014). "Film Review: 'Titli'". Variety.com.
- ^ "'Titli': Cannes Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ "Titli". 12 August 2014.
- ^ "Third I 2014 Review: TITLI Watches The Ugly Caterpillar Emerge From Its Cocoon". ScreenAnarchy. 19 November 2014.
- ^ "Titli review: This is the best Hindi film of the year so far". Hindustan Times. 30 October 2015.
- ^ Bhatia, Uday (29 October 2015). "Film review: Titli". Mint.
- ^ "Movie Review: Titli". Filmfare.com.
- ^ "India's Indie Film 'Titli' Shines at Cannes". The Wall Street Journal. 21 June 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ "The 13th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Annou | SydneysBuzz". 25 March 2015. Archived from the original on 25 March 2015.
- ^ "11 Indian films at Melbourne International Film Festival". DearCinema. 4 August 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ "Indian new-age cinema a hit at Zurich fest". The Indian Express. 31 October 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ "Titli". filmfesthamburg.de/. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ "Picks from the upcoming 58th London Film Festival 2014". easternkicks. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ "Kanu Behl's TITLI at 50th Chicago International Film Festival by Chicago International Film Festival in Chicago". Chicago Indian. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ a b "Titli, Teenkahon winners at SSAFF 2014". Dear Cinema. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ a b "Titli, Killa winners at SAIFF 2014". Dear Cinema. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ "Titli to screen at International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2015". Saddahaq.com. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
- ^ "Interesting Indian films at 38th Gothenburg International Film Festival". Sasnet.lu.se/. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
- ^ a b "Titli takes top prize at Gijón". Wn.com. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ "Turkish film festival awards Indian 'Titli'". Wn.com. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- ^ "Titli remporte le Prix du public au FFAST 2015". Bollywoodstudio.fr/. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
- ^ "First-time director from India in the running for Camera d'Or at Cannes". The National. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
External links
- Titli at IMDb
- Titli at Bollywood Hungama