The fiery ambience
Rangasthalam
They say creating the right ambience for the story is half the work done. Rangasthalam stands tall on that front. Director Sukumar’s action entertainer in an 80s setting showed us a whole new Ram Charan, who excelled his part of the hard-on-hearing Chitti Babu. We also revelled in the performances of Samantha (she’s had a great year, and can take pride in U-Turn, Mahanati , and the Tamil film Irumbu Thirai ), Jagapathi Babu, Aadhi Pinisetty and others, while soaking in the rustic milieu of the film, further accentuated by Devi Sri Prasad’s music and Chandrabose’s lyrics. We’ve discussed so much about this film in our pages during its release, but we can’t help look back at a few highlights.
- Rangasthalam, Mahanati, Care of Kancharapalem, Bharat Ane Nenu, Sammohanam, Goodachari, Chi La Sow, U Turn, Tholiprema, Awe, Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava, RX 100, Taxiwaala, Chalo, and Bhagamathie.
Moving away from the glossy, lush portrayal of Godavari river and villages by its banks, Sukumar, cinematographer Rathnavelu and art directors Ramakrishna and Monika showcased a dusty reddish-brown terrain. Shooting in summer in far-flung areas of Rajahmundry, the team leveraged on fields of wild grass that doubled up as the killing fields for the film. So impactful are some of the scenes shot near these killing fields that at one crucial point when a wounded Aadhi Pinisetty is seated in that desolated shack, noticing a silhouette and hence the lurking danger, I blurted out during the screening ‘watch out, there’s someone behind.’ Only a good narrative can have that effect on its viewers.
Four stages of life
Care of Kancharapalem
This indie film that was taken up by Suresh Productions for distribution, transported us into Kancharapalem. The humour, class disparities and struggle for dignity of labour mirrored reality.
New York based-cardiologist Praveena Vijaya Paruchuri who produced Care of Kancharapalem ( COK) also played the feisty Saleema. Praveena tells us, “As a first time producer with no connections to the industry, completing a film and bringing it to theatres after blindly trusting a stranger (debut director Venkatesh Maha) I met at Starbucks was in itself a success to me. The credit goes to Maha.”
Praveena wanted to produce a Telugu film that would find its place in international festivals. COK found its way to New York Indian Film Festival and later to Boston, fetching Subba Rao an award for Best Actor. Praveena says she initially played Saleema out of necessity (budget constraints), “and eventually realised I might have been the better choice anyway. As an outsider I could play her just as any young woman hoping for love, rather than be limited by the stigma of her profession.” Shooting in sync sound was a challenge to Praveena. She had to get the language and accent right, and she was concerned since she hadn’t spoken Telugu since childhood: “My co-star Mohan Bhagath did a great job as Gaddam, portraying unconditional love, which made it easy for me to be Saleema,” she emphasises.
On the heels of the film opening in India to rave reviews, Venkatesh Maha took off to New York for an advanced screen writing course with Gotham Writers, to equip himself better to make Telugu films of international standards. He’s now pursuing a course in film distribution to understand market dynamics. He calls COK the best decision in his life. There was a time he had to prove himself, rise above challenges in professional and personal life. “That necessity gave me the confidence to take the risk.” He recalls someone from Kancharapalem calling to thank him for making a nuanced love story set in the locality in which people are looked upon as rough.
Discussing the characters, he states, “Beginning with my mom, I’ve seen a lot of strong women. I’ve also seen women who don’t know what greatness or strength looks like. I wanted to introduce it to them with the women characters in my film. The same applies to men as well. But the main four characters — the stages of a protagonist — came from me. I was Sundharam when I was a kid, Joseph when I was an adolescent and Gaddam right now and I want to grow up to Raju one day.”
Critiquing the fraternity
Sammohanam
Aditi Rao Hydari and Sudheer Babu in Sammohanam
Sammohanam might have faintly reminded us of Notting Hill . However, several other aspects were at play in this romance between a well-known female actor (Aditi Rao Hydari) and an illustrator of children’s books (Sudheer Babu). There were potshots at the film fraternity, wrapped in humour. Writer and director Mohana Krishna Indraganti’s love for Telugu also came to the fore. Aditi plays a non-Telugu speaking actor cast in Telugu films and makes an earnest effort to learn the language with the help of Sudheer Babu. Naresh’s character and how he’s outsmarted by a film unit is one of the many ways of the industry that gets highlighted.
Indraganti says he never wanted to make it preachy, be it when he was commenting on the industry or how a few web portals target female actors with headlines laced in innuendo: “It wasn’t a conscious effort to fit in all these issues. Writing is a mysterious process that I’m still trying to figure out. Ami Thumi was also a social satire.”
The director also wanted to show the sexual vulnerability of female actors when they are at work, without being accompanied by a family member. “Ambitious women are looked upon as shady people who might have compromised their integrity,” he states.
Vivek Sagar’s soul-stirring music and able performances came together to give us a treat that’s worth revisiting. Not one who rests on laurels, Indraganti analyses, “I wish I had revealed the girl’s flashback with lesser talk. But otherwise, I have fewer complaints about this film.”
Sammohanam’s television rights have been sold to ETV, so expect a telecast soon.
