In 1947, Vinayak Rao tells his 14-year-old son Pandurang about the Goddess of Prosperity.
She is the symbol of unlimited gold (wealth) and grains (food) and the earth is her womb.
When the universe was created, she gave birth to 160 million gods. Hastar, her first and
most beloved offspring, was greedy for all her gold and food. Hastar managed to acquire
the gold from the goddess but the other gods attacked him just as he was about to acquire
her food, but the goddess saved him on the condition that he could never be worshipped
and would be forgotten by history. For years, Hastar had been slumbering inside his mother's
womb. However, the residents of Tumbbad, where Hastar has been trapped in his mother's womb,
defy this ancient taboo and build a temple dedicated to Hastar, earning the ire of the
Gods and cursing the village, causing a nonstop downpour of rain over it.
Now the movie starts in 1918 in Tumbad village, where a woman goes to a big mansion. Where
there is a local lord named sarkaar who takes some favors from that woman including sexual
services. The woman asks him to hurry a little because she has to go home and feed an old
lady. At the same time, we see an idol of Hastar holding a gold coin in his hand. That
woman was actually doing all this in the greed of that gold coin, but on asking for the coin,
sarkaar refuses to give it to her and says that it cannot be given like this, it has
to be earned. On the other hand, two children of that woman run towards their house, but
when they reach home, they see their house locked. Now because they also knew that the
old lady had to feed, they open the lock and go inside. Now the elder brother, whose name
is Vinayak, cooks food for the old woman and sends the younger brother Sadashiv to feed
her. Sadashiv moves forward in fear but then thier mother comes there and starts scolding
both of them. After that, she cooks herself again and goes to the old lady's room where
she feeds her and also cuts her nails. Now in the night, Vinayak asks his mother
whether the sarkaar gave her the gold coin to which she says no. Hearing this, Vinayak
starts abusing sarkaar on which his mother slaps him and here we come to know that sarkaar
is Vinayak's father. Then all of a sudden they start hearing the cry of that old woman,
after which the woman takes an ax and goes to check her. The old woman had woken up from
her sleep, which frightened Vinayak and his mother. Vinayak's mother tells the old lady
here to go to sleep or else Hastar will come, after which the old woman falls asleep. The
next day we see that sarkaar is dead and here Vinayak's mother decides to leave Tumbbad
and go to Pune with her two children. But Vinayak tells him that they will stay in the
mansion where the treasure is hidden. His mother tells him that there is no treasure
there, to which Vinayak says that the old lady must have known about the treasure. Hearing
this, his mother gets very angry with him. After this Vinayak comes out of the house
where Sadashiv is sitting on a tree, both of them are talking, and suddenly Sadashiv
falls down from the tree, where he gets badly hurt by hitting a stone. Now their mother
starts taking Sadashiv to the doctor and tells Vinayak that she will have to feed the old
lady tonight and if she wakes up, he has to say that go to sleep or else Hastar will come.
After this Vinayak comes back home and sees that the food has been burnt. He again starts
looking for things to cook, but the flour falls on it. Then Vinayak starts hearing the
sound of that old woman singing a song, which frightens him a lot. He walks towards her
room in fear and tries to open the door but due to fear, he starts going back. Then the
old woman starts telling him about the treasure, and in greed, Vinayak opens the door and goes
to her and asks her about the treasure. The old lady tells him to give him food first
and then she will tell him about the treasure. After this, she tells Vinayak that she will
eat him only. Vinayak runs away in fear and starts cooking, but only then he notice that
the old lady has come out and she ties a fetter on Vinayak's feet. She then drags Vinayak
to her room where Vinayak tries to escape from her. Here Vinayak was very scared, due
to which he had forgotten the name of Hastar. But as soon as that old woman is about to
eat him, suddenly Vinayak remembers Hastar's name and shouts that go to sleep or else Hastar
will come and after that, the old woman falls asleep. Then his mother also comes back where
we come to know that Sadashiv is dead.
After this, both of them leave Tumbad after performing the last rites of Sadashiv, where
Vinayak tells his mother that they should tie that old woman and find out the treasure
from her. But his mother scolds him a lot for greed and asks him to never come back
to Tumbbad. After this, the movie movies forward 15 years
where we see Vinayak coming back to Tumbad. Vinayak goes straight to his old house where
he sees that the old lady is still alive even though her whole body has rotted and trees
have grown on her. Vinayak asks her about the treasure, on which she explains to him
that he should not run after the treasure or else his condition may also be like her.
But when he does not agree, she tells him the secret of the treasure and in return asks
for his salvation. She tells him that he cannot quench her hunger, so kill her by burning
her. Now Vinayak searches for treasure in the mansion for many months and finally sets
the old woman free by burning her. Vinayak then comes back to Pune where he meets
a man named Raghav from whom Vinayak had borrowed money. Vinayak gives him a gold coin and from
which he pays his debt and takes the remaining money from him. After this Vinayak starts
going to Tumbbad continuously and starts selling gold coins from there to Raghav. Raghav is
quite surprised to see this and he asks Vinayak whether there is really a treasure in Tumbbad,
on which Vinayak tells him yes, go and bring it. After this, one day Raghav comes to Vinayak's
house where he asks his wife, where Vinayak brings gold coins? but then Vinayak comes
there and they both start talking. While leaving, Raghav tells him that he wants to partner
with him, on which Vinayak tells him no. Now Vinayak was slowly becoming very rich and
he started doing a lot of debauchery with that money. One day Raghav sells his widowed
daughter-in-law to Vinayak as a mistress and Vinayak hires her to do household chores.
Now in the night, the girl tells Vinayak of Raghav's plans to visit Tumbbad to help himself
to the treasure. Now Raghav reaches the palace and Vinayak also follows him there. Here Vinayak
deliberately shows Raghav the way to Godesses womb. Vinayak goes inside and after a while
comes out with gold coins and Raghav is watching this by hiding. After Vinayak left from there,
Raghav also starts going inside the womb and he is feeling very scared when he comes inside.
Then he sees a box there, which when opened, he finds a doll of flour inside it. As Raghav
takes out that doll, only then some creature attacks him. After this Vinayak again comes
to Goddesses womb where he sees that Raghav has been cursed and he too has become a monster
like that old woman. Raghav here asks Vinayak to release him, on which Vinayak tells him
to go to sleep or else Hastar will come after which Raghav falls asleep. After this, Vinayak
makes a circle of dough around him and takes out a doll of flour from the box, after which
the creature comes there again. Now, this creature is none other than hastar.
Hastar starts asking him for food because according to the curse on Hastar, he cannot
even touch the grain of his own free will and that is why he cannot even go inside the
circle of flour made by Vinayak. When Vinayak does not give him food, Hastar attacks Raghav
and uproots his hand. Seeing this, Vinayak throws aside the doll made of flour and when
Hastar goes to eat it, Vinayak takes out the gold coins from a bundle tied behind Hastar
and quickly collects them and starts leaving from there.
But before leaving, he takes pity on Raghav and burns him. Now the movie moves forward
by 14 years and by the time India became independent in 1947, Vinayak had become quite rich. He
also had 3 children, of which there were 2 girls and 1 boy whose name was Pandurang.
Now Vinayak starts training his son to extract gold coins because Vinayak himself was getting
old and now he started having trouble in doing this work. Now a day Vinayak also takes his
son with him to Tumbad where on the way he tells him the story of Hastar and also tells
what can happen due to his curse. Pandurang gets a little scared on hearing all this.
Now reaching there, Vinayak teaches his son to make dolls of flour and then he throws
the dolls, saying that today we have come just for practice and we have no work for
it. He then goes to godesses womb where Vinayak asks him to make a circle of dry flour and
tells him that Hastar is afraid of grains.
Here Pandurang asks Vinayak when Hastar will come, on which Vinayak tells him that Hastar
comes only from a doll of wet flour, that is why they have come inside after throwing
the doll outside. Then Pandurang takes out the doll of flour which he had brought inside
by hiding it and Hastar comes there as soon as he takes out the doll. Seeing this, Vinayak
throws that doll aside and asks his son to get out quickly but Pandurang takes out the
gold coins when hastar was eating the doll and follows Vinayak from there. Vinayak gets
very angry at his son here and he beats him a lot and here we come to know that Vinayak's
son is even more greedy than him. After that, both of them come back to Pune. On his return,
Vinayak talks to a king about buying Tumbbad mansion, but here he learns that the king
has given that mansion to the Government of India, and Vinayak is very upset after hearing
this. After this Pandurang goes to Vinayak where
he is very drunk and here he shows his son all the gold and money he has accumulated
till now and tells him that now they will have to run their expenses from this only
because Now they cannot go to that mansion. After this Pandurang tells Vinayak that what
he is doing, is doing in a wrong way. Gold coins are not found from Hastar, but from
his bundle, so why don't we bring out his bundle. Hearing this, Vinayak tells him that
it does not take much time for Hastar to eat a doll of flour and in that time they can
only take out a few coins. On this Pandurang tells him that we will take many dolls of
flour which will take more time for Hastar to eat and we will bring his bundle. Vinayak
likes this idea very much and becomes very happy. After this, both of them take a lot
of Flour and go to TUmbbad and make many dolls of flour and go to the womb of the goddess.
Now Vinayak takes out the doll and Hastar comes there, but within a short time, Vinayak
notices that there are as many Hastar there as many dolls they have. Seeing this, both
of them get very scared and start throwing all the dolls one by one, which all the Hastar
start fighting among themselves to eat. During this Pandurang faints. Now seeing no
way out, Vinayak decides to sacrifice himself to save his son and he ties the remaining
dolls on his body. After this Vinayak comes out of the circle of flour and starts going
up the rope so that all the Hastar start following him. All the Hastar come after him and one
by one they start falling and destroying. After some time all the Hastar get destroyed
and Pandurang comes out of Goddess's womb. On coming out, pandurang sees that Vinayak
has now been cursed and has turned into a monster. But here we see that Vinayak was
successful in bringing Hastar's bundle and he starts giving that bundle to Pandurang.
But Pandurang does not take that bundle and burns Vinayak. While Burning we see Vinayak
laughing because he had come to know that now his son has understood that greed is a
bad force. In the last, Pandurang leaves without taking that bundle
and the movie ends here.