American novelist James Baldwin said: “All art is a kind of confession,
more or less oblique. All artists if they are to survive are forced at last to
tell the whole story, to vomit the anguish up”. Some truth that!! Stranded
with a script that deals with a critical look at the desire for money and a
talent that is shy of making claims to the description of an artist as the
quote above would suggest, Krishna Vamsi ensures this week’s ensemble of cast
crew and story for about two hours and more. Call this cinema in a very broad
sense and no more.
The reeking double standard, the obviously hypocritical stance, the
melodramatic essay through an amateur treatment make for laborious viewing,
perhaps a tad more than the effort in the very making of the film. The thematic
rejection is not so much for the stance as for the approach of the argument.
The film labours to convey that man will do anything to make an extra (fast)
buck – which includes making of a film with formulistic inputs.
The story (oh!) deals with the avaricious politician (Charanraj) – the epitome
of all perceivable evil. He is the Black Bad Guy with tonnes of stacked up
currency for the ensuing election to the post of the top political leadership.
In the old city of Hyderabad is Prakash (Nani) an unabashed worshipper of
money. With a no way to go career as a garment model in the old city, he dreams
wild of big money. He with a couple of equally clueless, useless, senseless
friends represent the local Don Quixote module. In the neighbourhood is Noor
(Catherine Tresa) who is smitten by the love bug and cannot see beyond Prakash.
Her family is debt ridden and the local goon Subbu Yadav (Subramanyam Karra)
has just crushed all the bangles of the old city to tell a poor widow that he
is powerful and if the debt due to him is not paid up in less than a week Noor
will have to take the Kota route – Lady Warrens Profession. Prakash sees
‘money’ and opportunity in Sweety (Siddhika Sharma) who is none other than the
daughter of the Minister and just as ill behaved. Her sense of adventure
includes soliciting goons in the flesh market and then running for dear life.
With Noor realising that she has no chance to marry Prakash she decides to play
martyr and agrees for a Nikhaah with the old Dubai guy- only to be kidnapped by
Prakash. On the run they find a car which they find handy for escaping little
realising that it is stacked with Rs. 50 Crores of the political goon. The
chase of the political goon for the money, the local goon for the gal and the
police guy (Raja Ravinder as Daniel and Duvvasi Mohan) for anything they can
lay they hands on the perceived idea of entertainment.
None in the cast deserve any special mention except that even in this “don’t
expect anything” film Siddhika Sharma puts on an accent and gets on your
nerves. Nani passes muster.
Of the film and the stance of the film maker, one is reminded of the famous
sequence involving Francisco D’Anconia in Atlas Shrugged when he points out to
the virtues of money and says: “Money is not the tool of the moochers who
claim your product by tears, or of the looters who take it from you by force.
Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider
evil?” Blessed with being unaware of such a possible stance the film maker
takes on the “money is root cause of all evil’ theory. To conclude the best
is to refer again to the same work when a character says: don’t let him disturb
you. You know, money is the root of all evil- and he’s the typical product of
money”C.
L. Ravichander.