I stay in New Jersey. Its almost 1:00am over
here, and cant wait till tomorrow to express my feelings in short after
watching the movie(not a movie, probably I would love to call it "Oka
Ramaneeya Drusya Kavyam") SreeRamaRajyam . Telugu Film Industry has
witnessed Lavakusa way back in 1963 and remained as an epic that
describes Ramayana. Not many from this generation must have experienced
the joy of watching that epic on silver screen where the industry is
suffering with shortage of screens for new releases every Friday. No way, one can get an opportunity to watch it on silver screen.
But
how about this golden opportunity presented to Telugites world wide by
the combo of Sri Sai Babu, Bapu-Ramana garu, Maestro, Akkineni,
Balakrishna and Nayanatara. It will be much of dishonest to compare any
of these to those who created epic that is still unforgettable even
after 48 odd years. But at the end of watching most awesome three hours
of their hard work on the silver screen, one should appreciate the
daring, talent, greatness and spirit of these people. And one will
definitely get a feeling that this gang is really blessed by Lord Rama and Goddess Sita, otherwise why only them?
Talking, discussing or listening to ramayanam
is forever refreshing. I don’t dare to write here anything about the
Ramayanam but only talk about the silver screen presentation of it.
Content
is no different than Lavakusa, but the visuals (graphics, DI
whatever!!) are treat to eyes. The long gone telugu treasures (poems)
are replaced with songs in regular words. Never disappointing Maestro,
gave his best album and background score. Maestro’s score set the movie
on top, no doubt. When the product was announced not many would have
shown any confidence in the success except the believers of Bapu -
Ramana. What a wonderful job they have done at this age? Just can bow
for them nothing else, the
imagination/visualization of them about the fort and the presentation
are so amazing to experience on screen. I believe, the close-up shots
that very widely used throughout the movie are only possible with Bapu
garu. Akkineni is simply apt and at his best. I think from the mountain
of experience, it must have been a cake walk for him but one of the
memorable of his life time.
Balakrishna, in his part showed how versatile
actor he is. Out of his competition, played folk, historical, social,
not so successful pouranikam as Krishnarjuna vijayam before this. From
his public speeches, it is understood that he is fond of this kind of
roles and I think he fulfilled his thrust with this. It is suicidal to
compare his presence to that of the greatest NTR but surprisingly he was
very close. He adopted different dialogue modulation for this role and
is convincingly closer to that of NTR but falls short in showing
ardhratha in his tone uttering SITA..SITA….
Nayantara, definitely is a big asset to the film. Again don’t put frame to frame with Anjali Devi, one will be disappointed.
But for the role she is very apt and gave the best. Sunita’s dubbing is very commendable.
Every other actor is fitted to their role and no one let down the pace.
Now
best of all, that not much known Y. Sai Babu garu. He is definitely
blessed. What a daring person he is? Look every producer, film making
aspirant is running after the names of Raja Mouli, VV Vinayak,
Trivikram, Puri and see where did this great person walked down
to……BAPU –RAMAMA and with that he made sure that he
definitely deserves a page in the history of Telugu Film Industry.
Don’t
miss the golden opportunity presented to watch the greatest epic on
silver screen. With that we are also appreciating the hard work of these
great people.
By Sarath
