Fear is the Key

As feature journalists we are encouraged to look at mainstream Tollywood ventures with a tactful mix of condescension and sympathy. “They cater to the lowest common denominator,” they tell us. “You cannot possibly use the same parameters as a Bollywood to judge these films,” they insist. They? The all-knowing,swish lot who are in first-name basis with the Chopras and Johars of the world. But who exactly is the lowest common denominator? Is he the shirtless,lanky frontbencher at the first day-first show of Amanush (at a North Kolkata hall) who feels it’s his moral responsibility to break into a jig every time Soham (the lead hero) serenades the heroine (Shrabanti) with a Jeet Gangulli number? Or is she the sniffling Mashima sitting next to me at the dress circle,who dabs her eyes with a crumpled sari aanchal as the hero is kicked around mercilessly by a group of goons?

As I sat in the darkened auditorium,an alienated,flummoxed presence in a world lost in the high-jinks of Amaanush,a volley of questions bombarded my mind. Why am I not relating to all this? Why does the lead hero insist on flashing his epiglottis in every second scene? Why is the heroine wearing two different dresses in the same scene? Obviously,these questions were rhetoric. Like all unsolved mysteries of the universe,there can never be a solution to continuity problems in a Tollywood film. Nor are the histrionic skills of the actors ever to be questioned. Maybe surrender is the key to a higher form of understanding.

Having sat through the entire length of this 3-hour long film,I identified two obvious inspirations—Pygmalion and Darr. The first half,where the village bumpkin with serious adjustmental problems is given a makeover by his posh (read Sreeram Arcade frocks and Bangkok gowns) classmate,is a playful,whistle-inducing contrast to the ‘intense’ second half. Post-interval,the film takes on a darker garb as the shocking truth is revealed to us—the bumbling bumpkin is actually an obsessive sociopath (gasp). In between,we are treated to fleeting images of some South Asian country where the lead players lip sync to multi-lingual songs like Baby I wanna die in your arms and Hai Rama yeh kya hua. If you squint your eyes and blur away the details,you realize that this song sequence can be from a Kareena-Hrithik 2001 film. This statement,I presume,will be taken by the director (Rajib) as a compliment.