A Death in the Gunj

2016

1h 50m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

List

94%

16 Reviews

Tomatometer

82%

50+ Ratings

Audience Score

When he goes on vacation with his self-involved relatives and family friends, a shy and sensitive university student discovers that there is a heavy price to pay for gentleness.

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Rohan R

A fabulous movie with a stellar cast and great performances.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A Death in the Gunj is a very well made and beautifully directed movie which really hits you close to heart and stop and think about how every person is different and faces their own turmoils within. This movie absolutely made me a better person and more compassionate towards others. The movie in itself is quite disturbing and emotional but does give the viewer a fresh perspective about a lot of things.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Absolute waste of time. Very slow movie with hardly any story. Unnecessary confusion created in ending. The acting is good but the movie is not worth watching at all. The main issue is that you do not relate to the family culture, it happens in 1979 and that too in Bihar and this family is portrayed as extremely liberal even by today's standards. The whole family drinks and smokes together, even in front of their child. The cousin sister openly flirts and fornicates with her brothers married friend in front of everyone and no one seems to mind. Seriously, is this even possible in Bihar in today's time, let alone in 1979?

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A movie with an old world charm but devoid of a story line. Very slow paced movie only apt for a lazy afternoon watch. The acting is good but then the story leads nowhere and the climax is nonsensical and has been deliberately made vague just for effects so that people talk about it. Long story short, an otherwise studious boy is facing trauma due to his father's death and thereby fails in his exams. Filled with guilt, shame and sadness he ditches his ailing mother to go for a trip to with his cousins, where he soon realizes that he is a loser and a misfit and thereby tries to commit suicide. Whether he dies or he accidentally kills someone is left to the viewers imagination.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The more you can relate to the protagonist, Shutu, an introverted, sensitive Indian man on a downward spiral, the more the movie will affect you. Vikrant Massey's rendition of Shutu is masterful. It is among the films and artistic ventures that shows how groups can target an individual, even though subtly at times and without consciously meaning to. Of course there are other factors undermining Shutu's mental health but what he is really against is a brand of macho masculinity which is held up as a model for this sensitive soul. The film deals with bullying, mental health issues (depression/grief) albeit subtly and within a social frame. There are flaws in this film in that we don't see the other characters developed that well but then the director seems to want to portray the superficiality of interaction that can happen even within a family context where an individual's pain is not recognized. The film is taunt, which is good. Much is said about the fact that the film is a period piece, set in the 1970s, and this lends it atmosphere, but for me it is a timeless portrait of the "othering" dynamic in groups.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

'A Death in the Gunj' has to be my favourite Hindi film of the year. Directed by Konkona Sensharma, this wildly entertaining and beautifully fascinating film is an audacious triumph of directorial craft and visual storytelling. But the film stays with me due to Vikrant Massey. Can an actor be on this top of his game? He is so annoyingly effective!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

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Konkona Sen Sharma

Director

Vikrant Massey

Shutu

Gulshan Devaiah

Nandu

Kalki Koechlin

Mimi

Ranvir Shorey

Vikram

Tanuja

Aunty, Anupama Bakshi

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Shubhra Gupta

The Indian Express

Sensharma's assured directorial debut unpacks a complex sentiment with feeling, and gives us a layered film with memorable characters about the games people play, and how, sometimes, that can have terrible consequences.

Rated: 3.5/5

Apr 15, 2021

Full Review

Sheena Raza Faisal

New Yorker

A masterly depiction of how patriarchy can rot a family tree.

Feb 27, 2019

Full Review

Anupama Chopra

Film Companion

This film will seep into your skin. Hours later, I was thinking about Shutu and his scars, including the ones he leaves behind.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 6, 2018

Full Review

Swetha Ramakrishnan

Firstpost

We need to have a middle path between "arty farty parallel cinema" and "mass masala entertainer", and Konkona Sen Sharma seems to have found a way, with A Death in the Gunj.

Oct 10, 2023

Full Review

Poulomi Das

Firstpost

Every time I've watched the film, it has seemed to me, more and more urgently, as a parable about the demons that families are capable of conjuring up when boundaries of civility are all but blurred.

Sep 18, 2021

Full Review

Saibal Chatterjee

NDTV

A Death In The Gunj, steeped in nostalgia, is a consummate requiem to an era gone by... But it is, above all, a sensitive, profoundly moving portrait of an angst-ridden young man derailed by a world bereft of empathy.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 24, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

When he goes on vacation with his self-involved relatives and family friends, a shy and sensitive university student discovers that there is a heavy price to pay for gentleness.

Director: Konkona Sen Sharma
Producer: Smriti Jain, Gaurav Mishra
Screenwriter: Konkona Sen Sharma, Disha Rindani
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 6, 2018
Runtime: 1h 50m

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