Kanu Behl has made a very impressive directorial debut with ‘Titli’. The movie has brutal reality feel because Behl makes no attempt to make more attractive either the visuals or the language. The movie will definitely fix you on your seats as the sorrow and the crippling helplessness of the brothers start creeping up on you and before you sort out anything you become a part of their miserable and painful lives. You will not leave a second to miss what is rapidly unfolding on the screen, as if just a blink might change their state of destiny. The series of events that take place within one sequence constantly switch from the pleasant to the unpleasant, the shocking to the more shocking and the intense to the light. Such a rare combo!

If you are familiar with the noxious, dark underbelly of Delhi, director Kanu Behl’s Titli hits you in the guts right from the first frame. Because it is about a world that co-exists right in our midst, a world so lowly 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, the fact is that Titli could be about any city, and its people. All you need to do is change the actors as per your ethnic and regional requirements for this tailor-made story of stark class difference in urban districts. No, Titli doesn’t frighten you. It doesn’t make you privy to some private conversations either. Instead, it pushes you out of slumber and makes you see the after-effects of a waywardly classic liberal economy. Ranvir Shorey as Vikram has given the best performance of his life, but the real show-stealer is Shashank Arora as the glum, disinterested Titli. His morose face is the entry point of depression. Shivani Raghuvanshi has an ideal face for Neelu’s character, and she has done justice to it. Kanu Behl’s Titli is the most impressive film of this year so far. Its tryst with reality will keep you hooked till the end, to say the least. Titli is the latest gem from evolving Indian cinema. Don’t even think of missing it.

A slow-burning, searing crime drama that shuns the conventional trappings of the genre, first-time director Kanu Behl’s Titli is a remarkably sure-footed film. Its dark, disturbing screenplay (Kanu Behl, Sharat Kaytariya) explores Delhi-NCR’s grimy underbelly and delves into the ugly innards of a family that subsists on the margins of the city. Titli has bursts of gut-wrenching violence. But the film’s central drama hinges mainly on the severe emotional violence that the characters unleash on each other.  Titli has a grimly real feel because Behl makes no attempt to prettify either the visuals or the language. Ranvir Shorey projects the malevolence of the venal Vikram to perfection, while Shashank Arora shifts back and forth between vulnerability and resolve to great effect. The real find of Titli is Shivani Raghuvanshi. In a male-dominated cast, she provides the spark that injects a degree of tangible humanity into the dystopian drama. Even when she is at the receiving end of grave threats and attacks, her visage reflects serene firmness. In a film in which nobody smiles, Raghuvanshi’s character embodies the sole ray of hope and the debutante makes no false moves.  The same is true of the film as a whole. Titli is an unflinching, insightful chronicle of our times. Do not miss it.

Kanu Behl’s debut feature is about one such family, which you haven’t seen in Bollywood before. It’s the polar opposite of the happy, shiny creatures served up by the Barjatya-Johar brand of cinema: it is a family which does eat together, and then they go out together. For a kill. Once you are done with it, you find the film is not done with you. It burrows deep, its hard edges looking for your soft spots. ‘Titli’ is brutal, its violence visceral: hard to watch, impossible to forget. The performances are excellent: from Raghuvanshi who channels hurt and bewilderment and stoicism in the face of an overwhelming situation, to Lalit Behl, who bids fair to be the creepiest, most parasitic Hindi cinema father, to the middle brother Sial who tries to keep the peace. Newcomer Shashank Arora lives and breathes Titli, the young fellow looking desperately for a way out. And Ranvir Shorey, as the oldest sibling whose violence is the most corrosive, yet the most heart-breaking, is outstanding. You watch, with mounting horror, your heart in your mouth. You watch, because you cannot look away. You end up feeling for Titli. You want him to break free, and fly away. He shines, and despite its darkness, so does the film. It is harrowing but imperative viewing.