July 8, 2006

Sekhar Kammula is one of the Indian directors who has persistence of vision. A director should need this vision from pre-production to post-production. I think that is the main reason why Godavari is different to our regular Telugu movies.

If we start from screenplay, he created very interesting novel characters like little boy and dog. He did work on each character; I personally liked Raji character much. All main characters have their individual point of view, dramatic need, attitude and some transformation. I like the freshness he is trying with characters specifically with Raji. Sreerams point of view towards politics is a fresh one too.

I liked Sekhars casting, specifically secondary characters. Little boy remained me the boy in Salaam Bombay. It is a good sign that local artists and theatre artists are being casted. The little boy and dog episodes were so entertaining that everyone in theatre had good laughs.

I really liked Sekhars commitment towards his shots in sunrise and sunset. It is not just sunrise and sunset; it is more - his commitment towards his vision. We all know how hard he and his crew worked to can these shots, hats off to each and everyone in the crew.

I liked Manasa Vacha song which gives us a good contrast between city architecture and Godavari scenic beauty. This is our music, our Indian traditional music that we can show it to world. I see good performance from Sumanth, Neethu, little boy and others. There are pretty good beats I enjoyed thoroughly from Sekhars direction. I really like that directors like Sekhar taking our Telugu industry towards directors medium where it belongs to.

I tasted his commitment back in 2004 while he was shooting Anand. I was visiting India. We were scheduled for a meeting. Right after shooting in the evening he came for meeting. He spent his valuable time though he was busy with shooting. He was so confident about that movie, I could feel it when he was describing. We had a nice coffee. And after few months later I watched that manchi cofeee lanti cinema in Dallas. After meeting him everyday I was checking Idlebrain for Anand news. And I was so thrilled with Anand Success. Same with Godavari, I have been checking Idlebrain for news. Finally I had a chance to watch it in Portland, Oregon where I live. I would like to see him in Dallas, if I could make it hopefully. I am glad that Telugu film industry is starting to have real talented persons like Sekhar Kummula.

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