Thithi
(Thithi)

In a small village in Mandya District of Karnataka, a 101-year-old man, fittingly nicknamed Century Gawda, dies while urinating. He leaves three descendants, his son Gaddapa, his grandson Thammana, and his great-grandson Abhi, who have to arrange the thithi (funeral celebration) of their deceased progenitor. This debut feature thumbs its nose at our reverent expectations of a film that could well have focused on death, sorrow and grieving. Instead, it invites us to Nodekoppalu to watch a village comedy in the form of a philosophical tale where the non-professional actors are visibly delighted to be playing both themselves and their characters. For this debut feature and 2015 Indian revelation, Raam Reddy, a 26-year-old film student in Prague, might well have been tempted to reinvent Jiri Menzel’s classic, My Sweet Little Village, on his own territory. Jérôme Baron