A satire on SEZs

Some time ago, there used to be art films, apart from commercial movies. They were classified as art films as they do not have any commercial values and were intended to explain a social stigma or to highlight a problem faced by the society. After a long gap, one such film came up on Telugu screen. LB Sriram, who was popular as artiste these days, was once a good writer. After a long gap, he penned a story called ‘Sonta Vooru’ based on a recent problem faced by various villages called ‘Special Economic Zones’ under whose guise, the government acquired fertile lands and converted them into factories and mines to help MNCs. As a result, the farmers were forced to search for an alternative profession and are turning labourers and rickshaw-pullers. Those who are fond of their motherland and come here to have a peaceful death were forced to go to some other place as villages started disappearing.

Bujji (Raja) is a small papad vendor. He is basically a physically challenged person and also an orphan. He likes Malli (Teertha), who was a prostitute, because of her boldness and lovely smiling face. Both of them live in a small village. There are different kinds of people in the village and everyone are friendly with each other. Bujji has a strong desire to buy a car and move around the village on it. He knows that he it is beyond his capacity but still aspires for it. Once Bujji goes to Malli and the latter thinks that he is also one among the males who crave for her in that village. But Bujji expresses his wish to marry her. However, Malli announces that she can’t marry him as she was enjoying her life as she wanted. She threatens that she would move with the men like earlier even after marriage and Bujji accepts it and tells her that he would not curtail her freedom. So Malli also starts developing some soft corner towards Bujji. But knowing well that she has no character, she doesn’t want to deceive an innocent boy and tries to avoid him.

Bujji goes to the extent to offer a car for her, which was his dream. At this juncture, the MRO (MS Narayana) visits the village and announces that the government had decided to develop a nearby area as SEZ and wants to lay a six lane road which has to pass in the middle of the village and convinces the villagers to vacate it and get compensation. Devudu (Tanikella Bharani), who was an elderly man in the village, also convinces people to help the government develop the state. Many villagers, who were senior citizens, do not accept the offer but their children, who were youngsters force them to accept the compensation as they could lakhs of rupees instead of ploughing and doing agriculture. As a result, the entire village becomes a desert and one after the other people start leaving the village. Rudra (LB Sriram) is a katikapari (the one who burns the dead bodies in the burial grounds).

If there is a village and people living there, he could get some work as somebody dies in the village at least once in a week or twice in a month. When the village turned a desert, he could not get a job. Even his daughter, leaves behind two of her children, and goes to the nearby town with her lover. Only a few people remain in the village including Bujji, Malli, Rudra and Devudu. In order to fulfill Bujji’s desire to buy a car, Malli helps Rs 6,000 through Rudra. Bujji calls up Malli that he is bringing the car and they can marry by that night. With lots of hopes Malli looks for Bujji and disappoints as the latter dies in a road accident. Malli also dies after a heavy boozing. Looking all this Rudra turns philosophical. In frustration, Rudra kills Devudu, who was responsible for becoming the village a desert. As Rudra kills Devudu, the remaining villagers stone Rudra to death.

PERFORMANCE:

The performance of LB Sriram, where he played a full-length role, is the highlight of the movie. Though a deglamour role, most of the dialogues in the film are from his character only. Raja, keeping his image aside, too played a deglamorous role as a physically challenged. Teertha, basically a Malayalee, played the heroine. She went a little overboard, but the director could justify it by comparing the prostitutes in real life. All the other characters in the film are moulded very near to nativity. Jayaprakash Reddy, MS Narayana, Vijayachander, Tanikella Bharani and Alapati Lakshmi did complete justice to their roles.

TECHNICAL:

Technically the film is not worth watching. The cinematographer ignored to maintain the same lighting all through the film. Especially, while shooting the scenes in nights, he used very dull lighting and at the same time, even the day shots were also quite dull. The film doesn’t need any songs but in order to maintain commercial values, the director kept some songs. One of them is an item song too. Music by Saketh Sairam is heavy. The audiences could not listen to the lyric, as the music is quite loud. But for the dialogues which were penned by LB Sriram, which are satirical and at the same time they make the people to rethink.

REMARKS:

Those who want to go to a movie for entertainment, this is a must no no for them. But for those who are interested in problems faced by the society and those who are interested to sit tight in the seats to listen the lengthy dialogues with satires, it is an interesting movie. This was the reason we mentioned in our intro that it has the scent of an art film.

Cast: Raja, Teertha, LB Sriram, Tanikella Bharani, Jayaprakash Reddy, Jeeva, MS Narayana, Vijayachander, Rallapalli, Swati, Alapati Lakshmi and others

Credits: Camera – Sabu James, Music – Saketh Sairam, Story and dialogues – LB Sriram, Art – Mouli, Script assistance – Gandham Nagaraju, Producers – Ravindrababu and Kishori Basireddy, Screenplay and direction – P. Sunilkumar Reddy.

Banner: Sravya Films