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11th
October 2005
Telugu
cinema has for long been waiting with a forlorn look for a
new age director who can take filmmaking to the next level
and fill the void created by RGV's desertion of the ship that
set him sail. Several new directors have been testing waters
recently but the most striking to my eye and hopefully for
many other movie lovers has been Chandrasekhar Yeleti. While
his debut film 'Aithe' was an amateur dabbling at his art,
his second film 'anukokunda oka roju' (AOR) sets him apart
as a bright hope for future.
Personally,
I have been betting on Rajamouli and Yeleti as the future
of Telugu cinema - a dream combination of a mass director
and a so-called class director. Rajamouli's latest venture
'chatrapathi' takes him back by two steps with its insipid
story telling technique and a brutally manhandled sense of
screenplay. My cry-view on that movie is for another day and
time but here, I wish to celebrate the coming of age of Yeleti
and his AOR. I do not wish to recollect the entire story of
the movie here (and you can refer to Jeevi's
review for that) but would only like to point out what
I think is the director's rationale for the movie.
Two
things distinguish AOR from the rest of films being made in
India today - yes I do mean the whole country here. Firstly,
belief in God has always been celebrated in an extremely sentimental
country like ours and there have been no movies, at least
to my knowledge - which tried to depict what can happen if
this belief in God and his omnipresence is taken to an extreme
level. Secondly, in a very miniaturized form, Yeleti talks
about the existence of 'Secret societies' in India. In the
west, these have once again been brought into limelight by
the recent Dan Brown best seller 'The Da Vinci Code' but in
India, there have been no legends or dark stories ever celebrated
on film about such secret societies. The closest that I can
think of again is the clique shown in 'Hey Ram' that plots
to kill Gandhiji. In AOR, Yeleti touches upon this subject
in a very ephemeral way and shows how disparate individuals
can be linked to one common goal when whipped into a frenzy.
The
movie starts with a classic shot with the camera moving in
the opposite direction to the traffic and right off the bat,
the director tells us that there's no linear storytelling
here. As promised, the movie takes us - in a haphazard fashion
- through the happenings of a normal middle class girl who
chances upon a drug laden party and ends up in a dream world
entirely alien to her. The director's attempts to stitch the
story together follow the same pattern as the recent Hollywood
classic 'Memento' - again at a very superficial level. And
that's exactly where I started losing interest in the movie.
I wasn't sure where Yeleti was going with all the whodunit
style suspense masala theme of the movie but when Shashank's
brother gets introduced and tries to kill Charmme, my antennae
went up and I was waiting for something interesting to happen.
A small left turn here - a little attention to detail that
I noticed ( but am not sure if Yeleti intended it ) was the
way shashank's brother keeps trying to light a match repeatedly.
It's a simple task that a grown up adult should not find difficult
but the director shows us that this guy is lost in his own
world. I raise this issue because that's a classic sign of
Schizophrenia which incidentally also has people deluding
themselves to be God's messengers.
Back
from the diversion with a right turn - the director then leads
us to the whole gang of cohorts who plan to achieve the ultimate
through a weird baba type, someone who could effectively sell
his weirdo ideas to a bunch of grown ups. In depicting this
state of mass hysteria, Yeleti makes a strong statement about
the Indian society today where every Ram, Vicky and Hari (
my lame attempt to indianise tom, dick and harry) with nary
an understanding of the depths of our scriptures becomes a
self-proclaimed baba with avid following. It's infact a statement
on the desperation of the common man in trying to find a recourse
in the spiritual but getting taken on a wild goose chase by
these wily babas. Ofcourse, Yeleti does not talk about the
alternatives here but only cautions the ordinary Subba Rao
to be wary of such characters and what havoc they can wreak
if left unchecked. OK, another right turn now - Pawan Malhotra
is again used by the director rather intelligently with very
little dialogue and a lot of miming. I wish to commend Yeleti
on his choice of Pawan Malhotra as a strong character in both
his movies. Several such talented actors have been left in
the sand in the increasingly family owned ***wood movies in
India. After 'Saleem langde pe math ro' there has not been
one meaty part for Malhotra and his superb performance in
Aithe is both an ode to his talent and to yeleti's penchant
for the talented. Kudos!!! Harsha who essayed the role of
the English teacher, his comic timing was evident in Aithe
but with ample footage in AOR and Chiranjeevi-inspired mannerisms,
this guy provides a lot of comic relief as the movie picks
up the pace. Again, this is another aspect of Yeleti that
I think will probably hinder him from going places - unnecessary
diversions from the mainline just to make the movie stick
to the 3 hour format. That he does it in a very entertaining
way is a testament to his RGV-inspired talent but that will
not make him a strong story teller for the future. Something
to avoid.
OK,
back again with a left turn - I am going dizzy with all these
diversions. As some of you might have got it by now, all this
is with love for my favorite song from the movie - right o
left o , left o right o. Keeravani comes up with splendid
numbers for this movie but Yeleti's immature handling of songs
in a movie is also shown here. Just by choosing the profession
of the heroine as a group singer, Yeleti calculated to introduce
songs into the movie, fine by me in general but again could
prove his undoing in the long run if he wishes to be counted
as a serious filmmaker. Songs are not a must for every movie,
especially in the increasingly global world with lots of other
modes of entertainment. As the movie progresses with the secrets
of the society shattered and with Jagapathi Babu getting a
hero elevation, one marvels at Yeleti's ability to take us
totally off guard. The movie's title and the promos - all
make this a Charmme movie but in reality, the whole Charmme
drug episode is peripheral to the movie theme and is only
used by the director to introduce a sense of tension and a
motive for the movie's final grand unraveling. Very very cool.
Finally,
I wish to conclude with a comment about Yeleti's influence
from the west. It's very surprising that a talented director's
first movie had a Hollywood influence while the second one
did not - in it's theme. Aithe has influence of 'Suicide kings'
while Jagapathi Babu's character in AOR has this motif of
him constantly drinking some juice. Hollywood movies had this
motif earlier with every cop type drinking or munching on
something. It would do Yeleti good if he could avoid such
things. I understand that complete originality is not an easy
thing but greatness does not come easy either. I wish him
good luck in his future ventures and hope that his army movie
can kick off some day soon. All bouquets welcome to [email protected]
and brickbats to [email protected]
-
Bhrigu
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