At first look, this sounds like one of those typical stories of revenge -- the way a bunch of hostellers get back at a warden who is depraved and keeps the children in deplorable conditions.
That’s the plot and the film Minukkumanna Minugurulu has the usual trappings to make it a complete movie.
However, the resemblance to a run-of-the-mill film ends there. The basic plot apart, everything about the film comes with the promise of being different - the story-telling format, the photography, the music and the like. The film’s title translates into ‘fireflies’ in English.
Directed and produced by Ayodhya Kumar Krishnamsetty, founder of Respect Creations, a company with production facilities in Portland, San Francisco and Hyderabad, the film has a strong social message.
“Don’t mess with the visually-challenged. They are just like us and capable of doing anything we can do,” he states.
This film is also the only Telugu film in the ‘Competition Live Action’ category of the 18 International Children’s Film Festival of India. In the race were 800-plus entries and of the 160-plus selected for screening, only 17 are in the competition category. The cast includes 40 visually-challenged children and the story revolves around how four of them make a video of the tyrannical warden which they show to the District Collector.
“I wanted to highlight the actual living conditions in hostels, especially facilities for the visually-challenged. The script has a lot of depth and that is why accomplished actors and technicians had no hesitation to accept it the moment I narrated the project to them,” Mr. Ayodhya says.
The cast includes Suhasini, Ashish Vidyarthi and Raghubir Yadav and top technicians like Director of Photography David Fuller, music director Vivek C. Philip ( Bas Ek Pal ) and sound designer Amirit Pritam ( Slumdog Millionaire and Black ). The lead roles are played by debutant Rushini and Srinivas, an upcoming actor of Golkonda High School fame.
Minukkumanna Minugurulu will be screened on November 18 and 19, at Prasads Multiplex and Ranga Theatre, Jeedimetla, respectively.
