All it took for Raam Reddy was one film and a non-professional cast to get noticed by film pundits globally. Century Gowda, in his stunning debut Thith,i remains an unforgettable figure in modern Indian cinema. Nearly a decade later, Reddy is back with his second feature. It’s called Jugnuma (The Fable in English). Far more refined in scale and featuring some of the country’s finest actors, the film is nothing like the filmmaker’s maiden outing.
If Thithi’s rural Karnataka setting felt as if it were made by someone who grew up in those surroundings, Jugnuma radiates an anecdotal quality. Set in the Himalayan foothills, Reddy’s new film takes us to 1989 amid apple orchards, wildfires, an Indigenous community, and a blue-collar clan in awe of their employer.
Jugnuma opens with a man named Dev (Manoj Bajpayee) brushing his teeth in the morning. He interacts with his family (in English) and the staff (in Hindi). Within minutes, he heads straight to the outhouse, straps on a pair of wings, and leaps off – inviting no adverse reactions from anyone. So, if normal mortals take a morning stroll, Dev takes off to fly in the open sky.
Raam Reddy’s film places its leading man on a different pedestal. Initially, we believe it is a sentiment of awe. After all, Dev inherited the large estate from his grandfather, who received it from the British government. In a capitalistic world with giant economic disparity, the English-speaking family is a distant cousin of their colonial enablers. There is no visible oppression, yet the class imbalance between Dev and the villagers is conspicuous.
Narrated like a fable by the house manager Mohan (Deepak Dobriyal), the storytelling constructs suspense, one layer at a time. The first trigger is a stray event of trees in the orchard catching fire. Everyone, including the cops, is doing their bit to nail the origins of the fire. The cops and the local administration, with their oppressive ways, are quick to place the blame on the caretakers. There’s something more to it – says the film.
Another prominent element in Jugnuma is Dev’s daughter Vanya (Hiral Sidhu), who develops intrigue for a silent horse-riding indigenous tribe that stations close to their house. An astute rider herself, the teenage girl becomes close to one of their younger members. The young man does not speak a language. Instead, he interacts with the girl in chants, in an ambiguous scene that signals physical intimacy between the two.
To put it cheekily, Reddy’s film is a charmer that is ‘slow-burn’ in a literal sense. There are flames, smoke, and a peculiar luminescence. Shot in 16 mm film (DOP: Sunil Borkar) for a lived-in retro feel, the grainy texture adds character to Jugnuma’s screenplay. Its cinematography is not a device to evoke nostalgia, but it is used to lend it a dream-like aura.
The scenes where Dev flies across the hills do not have the finesse of 2024’s technology. It is how you might have imagined a grandmother’s bedtime tale as she narrated one in your childhood. The film is also stellar in the art and sound departments. Juhi Agarwal Reddy designs interiors that refuse to resemble sets. It is as ’90s as the ’90s would get. Sound designer Nithin Lukose creates a soundscape equivalent to your aural imagination of a modern fable with many mystic elements.
Jugnuma has its politics tightly in place. Its magic-realistic story does not exist in a silo. The status quo between the master and the workers speaks a lot without putting everything into words. The commentary on climate change and the presence of the indigenous community are not coincidental either. The film explains how the establishment would still favor a softly autocratic setup that accords with power, not the textbook idea of democracy we espouse.
Ram Reddy’s characters are also named with care. Dev, Mohan, Nandini, Keshav, and Radha are all mythological names. The most metaphorical one is Vanya, which translates to ‘of the forest’ – staying true to the character’s tendencies.
Interestingly, the filmmaker does not make it easy to decipher whether Dev is a positive character. On the surface, he is. Dev is an admired employer and a benefactor. Outside that framework, he is still an intruder – technically a descendant – who has taken away land that belonged to the tribals, the locals, and the wildlife. Jugnuma, seen entirely from the wide-eyed perspective of a worker, refuses to view Dev and his family sans a halo. It mildly deconstructs how several of our fables might have wrongly eulogized problematic figures as victors.
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Jugnuma is not a film that would convince you without a robust cast, and Reddy knows it. Casting Manoj Bajpayee as Dev is, in itself, half the battle won as the actor approaches the part with a balance of tenderness and anger. As a householder and an employer, the actor paints a dual picture of himself – neither of which is unlikeable – but not without leaving an afterthought on his morals.
Priyanka Bose displays a restrained grace as Nandini. A light touch in her characterization is her ability to sing. It is more than what meets the eye. Deepak Dobriyal delivers a strong performance that proves his versatility yet again. The actor’s narration lends the film a mystic charm that elevates in effect towards the finale. If Tillotama Shome is effective in a short role, Hiral Sidhu gets the pulse of teenage rebellion to the right degree.
The most alluring aspect of Raam Reddy’s film, indeed, is the element of magic realism. India’s folklore is rich with stories that chronicle celestial beings, and it is human to attribute mystic incidents to the presence of such creatures. Like many late-night ghost stories shared by a fireplace, Jugnuma is one that underprivileged workers would narrate with wonder, “Once upon a time, there was a family in an orchard…”
Rating: ★★★★
The Fable was screened at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024 and is slated to release on 12 September 2025.
