By Rohith Raju
Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
Amidst the mainstream
era that’s prevailing all over, we hardly have time and patience for art films.
Right? Perhaps! Are we that busy that we
have no time to spend on a film that’s bundled with profound cinematic
aesthetics and opus, offbeat sensibilities, and lot of inspiration and reality
to derive that will certainly change the way we think about society, finally
leading us to empathize with the film’s persona? Not time, a little bit of
patience will do it keenly.
Regarding that, I would like to take honour to critique Rajnesh Domalpalli’s ‘Vanaja’ which never got a release in India. May be he needs an introduction and so his film too, as the number of art film viewers in Telugu are in negligible count compared to other regions. And I hope this film gets a release in India soon.
Rajnesh opens the film with a kid trying to disrobe ‘Vanaja’
(lived by Mamatha Bhukya, a 14-year-old girl) followed by a stage performance
of a troop, only to bring to life the extinct art of ‘Burra Katha’. Vanaja,
then, gets a chance to encounter one of the soothsayers of that troop, who was
in her final years. She discloses Vanaja that she will become a great dancer,
and goddess ‘Parvati’ is the only rival for her. This inspires her to learn
dance with the assistance of the village’s landlord, who’s also a dancer. Soon
Vanaja gets employed in that landlady’s house and entices her to get trained in
dance. With all her resolution and yearning, she aces the Kuchipudi dance in almost
no time. The ‘Thillana Dance’ made me awestruck. The kind of experience it
gives, the essence of music built in it, the dedication of Vanaja to accomplish
it, enlightened me to a much greater extent. And, life seems happy for her, but
she’s not aware of the mishap that’s about to happen to her.
After a glimpse at the picture, what tickled on your mind? Why is
she crying? What’s the trauma she has encountered? Has anyone clobbered her?
Or, did she…? All your assumptions go in vain when you discern about her
pathetic turmoil. The landlady’s son, who has arrived from states, has
exploited Vanaja’s virginity at just the beginning of her puberty. Now, just
imagine what would be going on in her conscience? What could she do now? The
totality of her life has undergone inevitable changes. Vanaja, being a
low-caste girl, has no choice left to marry that landlady’s son due to caste
disparities. Besides this, her father’s solace to alcohol topples her in a
woeful way. But she harbours courage in her to confront the repercussion which,
for her and people of such kind, is a cumbersome task.
After hearing everyone’s suggestions, Vanaja resists to abort.
She doesn't seem to reciprocate. May be for couple of reasons; as the baby
being the only evidence for the sin the landlady’s son have committed, or she
would have owned the baby that she’s carrying, realizing that she had became a
mother.
With things being forging drastically, either for good or bad,
Vanaja, in little time, engenders motherly love towards the child. She wishes
to raise him. But, however, she’s aware of the fact that she can only be his
mother and cannot nurture him to be a doctor or an engineer. And everyone’s
asking these questions; will her future partner accept her? How could she
manage both career and the baby? Having keenly scrutinizing the circumstances,
Vanaja is seen quite contented having left her son with them to grow in a
fortunate way, only because of the landlady who promised that she would send
child back to her in future. It’s the
best she can do, to be precise. And in the end, there’s a sense of positivity
in her words hoping for a better tomorrow.
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