The Fable

Gorgeous Visuals, Sluggish Screenplay.

Visually stunning, but the screenplay misses a few marks and becomes dull at points. Loved the ending, but still wanted to love the film more as a whole. It has its moments, though they are limited.

Manoj Bajpayee shines as always, and the supporting cast does well too. Loved the special appearance too. There is a strong sense of realism in how the film looks, feels and sounds. The use of real locations and locals from the village adds to that authenticity beautifully. The VFX is amazing, and the fact that it was shot on 16mm film makes it look truly stunning.

The only thing pulling the film down is the lack of content and pacing in the screenplay. The story being told is quite interesting and works beautifully as a fable, but that is exactly the point, fables are short. Here it is the opposite, we spend too much time for a very limited amount of actual story. The director gets a bit indulgent overall, which causes the screenplay to drag and take too long to set things up and execute them towards the end. A tighter edit at around 90 minutes instead of 119 would have served it much better. That alone could have made this a great film.

Gorgeous Visuals, Sluggish Screenplay.

Visually stunning, but the screenplay misses a few marks and becomes dull at points. Loved the ending, but still wanted to love the film more as a whole. It has its moments, though they are limited.

Manoj Bajpayee shines as always, and the supporting cast does well too. Loved the special appearance too. There is a strong sense of realism in how the film looks, feels and sounds. The use of real locations and locals from the village adds to that authenticity beautifully. The VFX is amazing, and the fact that it was shot on 16mm film makes it look truly stunning.

The only thing pulling the film down is the lack of content and pacing in the screenplay. The story being told is quite interesting and works beautifully as a fable, but that is exactly the point, fables are short. Here it is the opposite, we spend too much time for a very limited amount of actual story. The director gets a bit indulgent overall, which causes the screenplay to drag and take too long to set things up and execute them towards the end. A tighter edit at around 90 minutes instead of 119 would have served it much better. That alone could have made this a great film.

The movie being shot completely on film makes a real difference compared to modern Indian cinema, and honestly, world cinema in general. We’ve grown used to oversaturated colors and overly lit frames that we’ve almost forgotten how films used to feel. In The Fable, the desaturated, high-contrast frames somehow still feel incredibly colorful.

The forest shots completely blew me away. This movie feels like memories unfolding, and that’s exactly how the story is presented. It feels as if the events are being narrated from the point of view of a much older character in the film, recalling the past like fragments of memory.

The framing, direction, and writing are some of the strongest I’ve seen in recent times. The dreamlike scenes were genuinely impressive and reinforced the feeling that we weren’t just watching events, but remembering them.

The movie being shot completely on film makes a real difference compared to modern Indian cinema, and honestly, world cinema in general. We’ve grown used to oversaturated colors and overly lit frames that we’ve almost forgotten how films used to feel. In The Fable, the desaturated, high-contrast frames somehow still feel incredibly colorful.

The forest shots completely blew me away. This movie feels like memories unfolding, and that’s exactly how the story is presented. It feels as if the events are being narrated from the point of view of a much older character in the film, recalling the past like fragments of memory.

The framing, direction, and writing are some of the strongest I’ve seen in recent times. The dreamlike scenes were genuinely impressive and reinforced the feeling that we weren’t just watching events, but remembering them.

Beautiful

Beautiful