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youth, after much difficulty in trying to find ways to meet
ends, risk their lives and commit a crime that they neither
have an experience with nor are they good at. Their common
friend, a girl, acts as the lone voice of reason and conscience,
and tries to mend their ways. In the end, things fall in
place, thanks in equal measures to accident and serendipity,
and they live happily ever after. This exciting, but exact
template, that Chandra Sekhar Yeleti so skillfully modeled
"aitae" around, has been adapted before, to the
same effect and surprisingly to the same result, by Siva
Nageswara Rao for "Money" (1993). Unlike the regular
3 act model that most of the movies tend to fall in, this
genre follows a 4 act (setup, execution, consequence, comeuppance)
framework, in a compressed timeframe, driving all its thematic
elements to the final conclusion, with an utter sense of
urgency. The timeframe works as an added advantage, both
to the theme and to the movie, in that the audience would
be anxious that the good guys dispose of the guilt bag at
the earliest and return to their simple and normal lifestyles,
no matter how troubling they are.
The lifeline of this genre depends upon how convincing the
setup is and the genius of lifeline depends on how simplistic
(not simple, but simplistic) the pressing needs of the protagonists
are. The simplistic the needs, the glaring would be the
ludicrous levels to which the lead characters tempt fate
and entangle themselves in something that could very well
end their lives. Gambling needs, domestic problems, employment
gains and health grounds form the basis of their crime.
Their simplicity of the heroes is contrasted with the cold-blooded
nature of the villain; the inexperience of the heroes is
mixed up with the calculated nature of the villain; the
good luck of the heroes crosses with the bad fate of the
villain. This potent combination stirred up with some witty
dialogue humor makes "aitae" as endearing as "Money".
Next in the lineup is the execution. Simplicity is the key
factor in this phase too. The social standing of the protagonists
limits their means and the reach to pull off an elaborate
plan. Chandra Sekhar works this limitation as an advantage
once again and hatches a plan that is logical, realistic
(within the rules of the movie land) and doable. The way
he intersperses the plans of the villain with the schemes
of the heroes, throwing the audience completely off the
scent, deserves some serious merit. While the consequence/comeuppance
(for the villain, ofcourse) act slows down the pace a little
bit, it can fairly be said that "aitae" joins
the ranks of "Money", as the chosen few telugu
movies that toyed with this structure and successfully at
that.
For this movie to go down as a taut thriller, Sudhakar,
the editor, shares as much responsibility as Sekhar, the
director, and luckily, editing comes off as one of the finest
that was on display in the recent telugu movies (on par
or even finer than Okkadu). There are two specific things
that can sing praises for Sudhakar's editing -
1. Most of the framing in the movie involves atleast 4 characters,
either in a circle or positioned strategically. The common
way to edit these types of sequences in regular telugu fare
would be straight close ups or mediums on individual faces
coupled with JARRING inserts, that does not add ups to the
flow of action. To further illustrate this point, fast forward
to the final sequence of "nuvvu naaku naccaav"
when Suhaasini confronts Venkatesh, and observe the way
the insert shots obstruct the regular flow, and feel completely
out of place with the rest of the framing - and this is
only with 2 characters in the frame. With "aitae",
where two-thirds of the movie has all the 4 lead characters
present in the same frame for most of the times, the way
the master shot is matched up with individual inserts, speaks
volumes of simple details that the director and the editor
(and the lensman) paid attention to, when handling the scissors.
2.
More than the technical expertise that is a pre-requisite
for handling the editing duty, it is the overall grasp of
the editor on the subject matter that dictates the pace
of the movie. The way each scene ends, while completely
book-ending it and setting up the next, reminds uncannily
of the Hitchcockian style of suspense film making.
Dialogues
- refreshing, terse and to the point, handled by Gunnam
Ganga Raju (who also produces), serve the dual purpose of
nice fillers and witty one-liners, without going over-board.
Roles speak true to their characters. The mafia guys have
sufficient profanity spewing in their speak. The Intelligence
Bureau folk has all the preciseness and much required intelligence
(that is often wanting in people of that stature) in their
discussions. The college students have the required vulnerability,
the little greed, blind optimism and overall apprehension
in their talk. The last producer-writer that comes to mind,
with the same (or even much greater) good taste and sharp
tongue as Ganga Raju, who already produced another good
movie "Little Soldiers" a few years ago, is the
legendary Chakrapani. Kalyan Mallik with his sole(soulful)
song (coupled with His Highness, Sirivennala's lyric) and
background music, brings his fair-share contribution to
the table. The black-sheep in this technical wizardry team
is the handler of the lens, Senthil Kumar. The lighting
was very inconsistent (don't know if this was intended)
throughout the movie, not to mention anything about the
scenes in the dark.
It is quite a tribute to its maker when a ultra low-budget
movie is graded on the same level as its big-budget peers,
nit-picked for the flaws on the same level, and not made
any concessions during the process - it says a lot about
the movie, made (from) with something so small. A long time
after "Money", here is another that does not assume
that the audience has come prepared to accept an action-thriller-comedy
with that single telugu movie goer accompaniment - suspension
of disbelief!
More
Ramblings on Telugu films
Mr & Mrs Iyer
Okkadu
Show
Manmadhudu
Nuvve Nuvve
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