‘Chelleli Kapuram’ is an yesteryear film that bears a testimony to excellence in several crafts of film making. The film boasts a terrific screenplay with interesting plot points (like the scene where hero Sobhan Babu has to settle for his friend’s photograph on his book cover that changes the course of the story), dramatic scenes leading to climax and a perfect delineation of hero’s character. It is not an easy job to pick a struggling poet as a protagonist and create enough drama in his world to make it an appealing entertainer. But the trio–Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, Balayya and K.Viswanath–come out in flying colours. The movie has several hit songs with great lyrics and all the lead cast put in stellar performances.
If one has to single out a performance from the movie, it has to be that of veteran Allu Ramalingaih. His character is that of a villain, character artist and a comedian…all rolled into one. Even while enacting a slapstick scene he maintains the stem of the character which is no mean task…and possible only for great comedy actors like Relangi.
My favorite scene is where his character first nonchalantly deceives God and then goes on to take advantage of a person in need. Like many scenes in the film, this scene not only presents the character of the Sivaramayya to the audience, but also reflects Hero’s world and its infested hardships.
Tailpiece: One can spot the inspiration from Gurudutt’s ‘Pyaasa’ in terms of subject matter, the dramatic climax etc, but ‘Chelleli Kapuram’ stands on its own. K.Viswanath in his later films repeated the themes of platonic love ( ‘Subhalekha’ , ‘Swayamkrishi’, ‘Apathbandhavudu’) and the theme for the climax song made way for ‘SiriSiri muvva’.
The first time I watched ‘Assassins’ in 1995/96 (at Skyline Theatre in Hyderabad), the scene that captured my imagination was that of Stallone taking his next ‘hit’ assignment via a laptop, a modem connection and a mini color printer. I was yet to be exposed to these three gadgets, and that sense of wonder, helped me latch on to that scene. (At work I had a 386/486 and a dot matrix printer! Laptop and a modem were a good two years away.)
I knew nothing of the director Richard Donner back then. Stallone was just Rambo. And Antonio, what?
But I remembered the movie for its style, shot making and restrained acting performance from Stallone.
Almost a decade later, when I watched Trivikram’s ‘Athadu’, that played on a similar conflict between two assassins, I wanted to revisit this movie. Trivikram might have been influenced by the tag line “In the shadows of life, In the business of death, One man found a reason to live…”.
Caught a glimpse of the movie on TV channels, but never really got to watch the complete movie. It took me another decade to latch on to a good copy 🙂
Interestingly making wise, I was still able to connect with the movie. Also, my soft corner for Richard Donner might have helped too 🙂
The central idea of S/o Satyamurthy is very close to my heart. It deals with father-son relationship before and after father’s death. For many, father’s death is a life changing experience. People who go thorough it keep wondering about the transformation in their selves. It’s a surrealistic feeling, when one looks at those two different images, before and after father’s death. But slowly and steadily, the new self takes over. This journey is tumultuous to say the least, that involves questioning one’s values, one’s legacy and one’s very existence, during every moment of that journey. It’s coming of age with full consciousness and volition. It’s a trial by fire. It’s no wonder when someone said “A man is not a man until his father dies”
S/o Satyamurthy being a mainstream effort cannot afford too much of internalization for the hero. So writer-director Trivikram creates an external world that throws him on a karmic ride he hasn’t experienced before.
Allu Arjun as Neeraj Anand gives his career best performance and he is as intense or understated as Megastar Chiranjeevi was in films like ‘Maga Maharaju’, ‘Vijetha’ and ‘Pasivadi Pranam’.
Every time he is on the screen and upholds the main theme of the film, you stay with the film. It is the antics that are expected from star that throws the film off-balance. But they are required right? It’s this combination that goes awry and makes the ride bumpy. Karma(cause-n-effect) is there alright, in full splendor. The script becomes a bit of a muddle with many characters entering and exiting at will.
Trivikram tries everything including visual/story ideas from movies like Citizen Kane (Estrangement of Rajendra Prasad and his wife), Life is Beautiful (reality show and kid ), Okkadunnadu (Son out to clear father’s debts), Swayamvaram (Business partners’s kin getting engaged), Maryada Ramanna (house set/controlling violence) etc etc. But the ‘say more than show’ approach dominates and becomes a speed breaker in narration.
If you are fan of both Allu Arjun and Trivikram (like myself) you should watch it, if not for anything, the intent behind the film. For me personally, just that one scene where Allu Arjun shares his feelings for his father with Samantha makes the movie worth a watch.
I could think of quite a few that would have made a difference to story telling…here are the top 2
In the film Hero character goes from nice to nicer to nicest. This limits the scope for the denouement. Should it have been from a ‘Julayi’ or atleast a person who isn’t convinced about his father’s greatness to a man who realizes it gradually? ( There is a scene in the beginning of the movie, where the son questions his father’s ways and Trivikram in his inimitable way uses the ‘nanna-puli’ fable. He creates a little bit of doubt in the audience mind about son’s perception of his father but he leaves it that and in a few minutes the son becomes ready to give away their 300 crore wealth!)
In my humble opinion ‘viluvale aasthi’ theme is secondary and beaten to death. For me the take-off theme is ‘the man you are, when your father isn’t around’. Then one’s perception of father’s greatness, one’s sense of his loss and one’s way of dealing it in the material world…all of these become more relevant and there’s a better connect with the audience. (Alternative way would have been if Satyamurthy were a very very famous person*). May be a better tag line would have been it is ‘nanna viluvule aasthi” and that would have shown the light while crafting the screenplay? Afterall when the son owns his father’s values, only then does he become a part of his father’s legacy.
*Tail piece 1: An excellent take-off for a similar story-idea by my father. Here is the first part of the TV series… making is a bit dated, but the writing isn’t 🙂 (Click here for the video)
Excellent take-off
Tail piece 2: There’s beautiful adaptation of ‘Nanna-puli’ story in the old movie ‘Peddamanushulu’ as a dance ballet that has a positive ending. Worth a watch! (Couldn’t find it on Youtube but the audio is available on the net)
