Rangasthalam

  • 0
When Raymond Chandler criticized Agatha Christie in "The Simple Art of Murder", it was criticism from a peer where Chandler makes an interesting point - "Fiction in any form has always intended to be realistic".

Sukumar's "Rangasthalam" is different and distinct in many ways. I fail to recollect when was the last time a top director made top stars appear in a period village drama in Telugu Cinema.

Sukumar has always been audacious right from his first film "Arya" where the hero introduction scene is - emerging from a crappy manhole, in "Jagadam" where the design of lead character goes against standard conventions, in "Arya 2" the hero is embedded with unprecedented grey shades, in "One: Nenokkadine" the hero has a psychological problem. In "Rangasthalam" the protagonist has hearing impairment but the audacious part of "Rangasthalam" is that it is set in the 80's.


The first top view zoom shot where Chittibabu is in a hurry tells the viewer that Sukumar's approach in Rangasthalam is going to be different when compared with his previous films. The post death ritual scene emphasizes that it has to be taken seriously, the suicide attempt - rescue scene underlines the approach of the film, the scenes of antagonist played by Jagapathi Babu gives the hint of the overall plot and politics involved in the film, the scene where President name is revealed, tell us that Sukumar has many such surprises in the film.

The most striking among the brilliant performances by actors is by Jagapathi Babu, it reminded me of Krishna Vamsi's "Samudram" and RGV's "Gaayam". Like his previous films, Sukumar comes with his trademark? item song, which increased the weight of my complain about stretching the movie beyond its potential and the target audience.

In "Rangasthalam", Sukumar doesn't shy away from escaping into humor whenever possible, doesn't feel shy to adapt melodrama, doesn't feel shy to exploit death, doesn't feel shy to use the obvious shortcomings of a village guy and also doesn't feel shy to emphasize the "thread" worn by antagonists.

Journey of "Rangasthalam" was with hiccups, definitely worth watching for its audacity, probably it will fill your mind in next few days with scenes from the movie but this still bugs me - "Fiction in any form has always intended to be realistic" or ‘Realism in art in any form has always intended to be Fiction’ or it doesn’t matter in Telugu Cinema?.