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‘Tiger’s Pond’ Review: A Restrained Indian Political Drama Set on the Edge of Spirituality

Natesh Hegde’s second feature 'Tiger's Pond' takes aim at the entwinement of feudal politics and religion, though it works more in concep.

Its textures may be alluring, even haunting at times, but its restraint ultimately proves sanitizing when its story ought to feel more visceral, if only to capture the ghoulishness — the physical and emotional violence — lurking beneath its pristine surface. This approach goes hand-in-hand with a style of acting seldom seen in modern Indian cinema anymore: the kind that splits the difference between neorealism and melodrama, balancing measured naturalism alongside occasional bursts of energy and gesticulation when the story hits its peaks. This peculiar marriage of politics and religion speaks directly to the shape that right-wing fascism has taken in modern India of late, and by entwining these forces so intimately, Hegde’s conceptual approach becomes innately courageous, and mischievously innovative too.

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