Hidden in the midst of blockbusters
and noisemakers viewers of Telugu cinema are being surprised once in a way with
cinema that is different. It is not that these products are mindboggling and
are Tollywood’s response to Ray, Benegal, Nilani, et al. Actually they are far
from such high pedestals. Films like Andala Rakshashi, 7 Days in Slow Motion,
etc, are sincere attempts to fly out of the pigeonholes and flutter with
freedom in fresh air. Having taken flight hopefully such daring filmmakers will
fine-tune the art to fly. No Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Unfortunately no
Illusions either.
The filmmaker in keeping with Bach would believe “There is no problem so big
that it cannot be run away from”. The film, therefore, is somewhere about
flight. It is about fluttering from the restrictions and fears of our being
into the dreams and destiny of our “wanting to be”. Thematically a superlative
premise to tell the story of three young girls with dreams in their eyes,
baggage on their shoulders and attitude in their behaviour. It is precisely
from here that the filmmaker could have pulled out a Scarlett O’Hara or even a
Hester Prynne. Unfortunately we have characters fleshed from Red Riding Hood
and Cinderella.
The distance between the spirit that seeks flight and expression and the flesh
that responds to restrictions is the space life is made of. Therefore to
overcome the restraint of the physical and to reach out to the imaginative
desire of the spirit, threefold could have been a marvellous experiment. Films
like Dil Chahta Hai and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara both dealt with nostalgia, of
spirited persona – sometimes coming to terms and somewhere defying the moral
code. Rock On moved further towards returning to the spirit that was and was
lost in the course of life. Kai Po Che was again somewhere the story of regret
a la a Namak Haram and a Beckett. These myriad combinations or any minor
streaks thereof could well have constituted the fulcrum of her cinema.
Instead she picks a group of screen-facing enthusiasts who convert the free
spirit of man into statement delivering robots and rob the film of a rightful
place in the respectful corridor of experimentation. Kudos to producer Jhansi
for having had the gumption to take on a film of this kind and praise be to the
debutant director Shital Morjaria for willing to chew.
Somewhere on a serious note she fails herself in the process of telling the
story. To quote Richard Bach: “Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be
true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else in not only
impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah”.
Some unsolicited advice to the filmmaker Shital Morjaria – don’t walk the road
of a messiah, much less a fake messiah. Be the filmmaker you are capable of
being.
All I Want is Everything is the naïve desire to catch a cloud and pin it down.
The challenge with such ambition is how do you solve a problem of this kind and
to quote from the popular song: A will of a whisp
a clown
Many a thing you know you’d like tell her
Many a thing she ought to understand
But how do you make her stay?
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand?
L. Ravichander