Pournami: All days are not Sundays

ManasantaNuvve, NeeSneham, Okkadu, Varsham, NuvvostananteNenoddantana. None of these films actually released on a Sunday, but it is their critical and commercial acclaim which made MSRaju experience the Sunday-milieu all throughout. His latest release, Pournami, proves that, ‘All days are not Sundays’.

The First 10 minutes…..
The classical dance, ‘Bharatanatyam’, has been bringing rains for the harvest in a fictional village. Every twelve years, the dance has been performed in the temple, by the women of the respected family. This tradition has lived since 400 hundred years. Now, it is the turn of Subhramanium’s daughter, Pournami, to perform.

Analysis of the Rest…..
Through the history, Tradition and Faction never went together. Pournami attempts at mixing the two; and falls flat. MSRaju’s story and screenplay evoked neither the brilliance of the tradition nor the brutality of the faction. After the promising premise (the first 10 minutes), a strange idiocy seeps into the narrative. This is one of those many films which boast that ‘Indian tradition is great’, but does not convincingly prove it. No doubt, the idea of using ‘dance’ as a means of narrative is very challenging. Director Prabudeva’s perspective that every move in nature is related to dance is fully agreed. But the execution by the director and the performance of all the actors lacked the soul and convincing factor (with exception of Charmi’s performance).
Prabhas, in the first few reels, is a complete misfit. In attempting to play a playful attitude, he stumbles into over-acting. Anyway, the action sequences in the later part of the film save him from more awkwardness. Owing to his good physic, his grace in action sequences is undoubtedly unmatched. But other than a few fights and songs, Prabhas has no flesh to his role.
Trisha fails to deliver right from the first shot and further proves that she lacks the potential to carry forward a spineless role. May I ask the film-makers, if this girl ever knew anything about dance? She played the classical dancer’s role with the body-language of a bad dancer (or more appropriately a bar dancer).
Sindhu Tholani, though in a minuscule role, shows her spark. Rahul Dev, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Chandra Mohan and others are utterly wasted.
Like a pearl on the dirty and slimy sea-bed, it is Charmi who brings some console to the unimpressive acting department of this film. She is apt for the role of Chandralekha and her body language was amazing. Her entry scene, where she walks in the market carrying vegetables, will find appreciation from most connoisseurs of natural subtleties. Her childish mannerisms are authentic and awesome --- watch her carelessness in pulling her finger while applying ‘kajal’ to her lower eye-lid.
Technically, this film is a big let down. The cinematography (Venkat Prasad) is way below MSRaju’s standards. The editing (Krishna Reddy) is sloppy. The art-direction (Ashok) is not fresh. The background score (DeviSri Prasad) is good, but on a comparison, Mani Sharma’s score in Deviputrudu was more riveting. Most songs are forced into the narrative. After MSRaju’s string of quality films, this film seems to go down even in terms of his production values.

Recommendation: A big NO.

Mixed Doubles: Moral out of Amoral

‘A man digs his own grave.’
‘Barking dogs never bite.’
‘Silent people are effective, because they don’t waste their time… talking!’
We have read these in many books during moral science classes at school. And we can perceive them in Rajat Kapoor’s ‘Mixed Doubles: A-Moral Tale’.

The Americans have a kind-of silly psyche to support anything their instincts lead to. In the 20th century, marriage has taken en-route many complexities; infidelity is one such complexity. The boredom of lasting marriage makes man weak enough to cross the borders. In order to support such weakness, the Americans began the concept of Swinger clubs; where infidelity (wife-swapping) happens in open light. Now, infidelity is no longer a social taboo. The escapist reason given is: to spice up the marriage and keep the couples young and active, such swinger dates can help.

For the last 10 years, Sunil and Malathy lived a beautiful married life. But for the last 40 days, they haven’t got physically intimate. It’s 10 years, since marriage, and now, their respective timings of desire do not match (his manhood doesn’t evoke, when she wants; and when it does, the situation is awkward enough to get physical). One fine day, Sunil hears from his NRI friend Harsh, about the Swinger clubs in the US. Harsh and his wife Shefali have joined such a club and Harsh reasons that as the reason for them leading their long married life actively. Now, Sunil is excited about the thought of sleeping with another man’s wife. He somehow convinces the stubbornly reluctant Malathy into the adventure and fixes a date with Vinod and Kalpana. Such an ‘Amoral’ story! Isn’t it?
Just before the Swinger date, Harsh reveals that, the other day, he was just playing pranks and did not expect Sunil to get so serious. Now, since the date is fixed, Sunil takes it in his stride and what happens later………. now, that’s a ‘Moral’ story! Believe me!!

No matter how unconventional and unconvincing the theme may be, two factors can make it conventional and convincing: the performances and the script. With a reputed cast like Ranvir Sheorey, Konkana Sen Sharma, Rajat Kapoor, Koel Purie and Vinay Pathak, the performance department is expected to rock and it does. Kudos to everyone for their natural portrayals! The script too was about to reach the perfect level of conviction when, unfortunately, in the second half, it deteriorates the pace and the convincing factor drastically falls. At some occasions, it might seem that everything was forced in; i.e. things need not happen that way. Again, to the audience’s rescue, comes the climax, which was apt and perfect. It told what the director (Rajat Kapoor) wanted to convey --- Thinking out of the box is smartness, but thinking out of the morals (or ethics) is the lack of it.

Cast: Ranvir Sheorey, Konkana Sen Sharma, Rajat Kapoor, Koel Purie, Vinay Pathak
Written by: Anurag Kashyap and Rajat Kapoor
Camera: Rafey Mahmood
Director: Rajat Kapoor

Trivia: Rajat Kapoor, a couple of years back, made the award-winning ‘Raghu Romeo’.