Twenty years ago, I managed the Coca-Cola plant at Mangalagiri, a village that was equidistant from Guntur and Tenali, deep inside coastal Andhra Pradesh. For a land that is best known as the Punjab of the South, the place is known for spicy biryani, beer and big budget movies. Watching megastar #Chiranjeevi doing the “Veena” dance in the movie #Indra, one knew that the darkened cinema hall was where the alpha male Telugu man gave flight to their dreams! Every movie was more colourful and louder than the earlier one.
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews #MiddleClassMelodies from director #VinodAnantoju, available on #AmazonPrimeIndia. Never did I imagine that I would watch a film set in that region - village KolaKaluru near Tenali and one that would shatter my mental image of Telugu cinema. No loud costumes or music, no bombastic dialogues and no heavy-duty cast, this is a throwback to the kind of movies #AmolPalekar would star in back in the eighties. Not everything is perfect about #MiddleClassMelodies though but if you do have a fancy for Telugu cinema, this one is a must watch.
Raghava (#AnandDevarakonda, and brother of #VijayDevarakonda) plays a hot-headed young man who is caught between the taunts of his father and his own aspirations . He prides himself on making the best “BombayChutney” in the region and dreams of starting his own hotel in Guntur. For him, that would be his bat talking and building his own career on his own merits. And that's all that there is to this movie!
What #PelliChoopulu did for his brother is what #MCM could well do for #AnandDevarakonda. He plays a likeable, eager-beaver young man who is caught between his simple aspirations, his girlfriend and his family. For good measure, the director of that film #TharunBhascker plays a little cameo in this one. What's interesting is that this is not just about the lead Raghava alone; the supporting characters are delineated well and the cast does a commendable job too. Raghava’s dad Kondala Rao (#GoparajuRamana) is a distinctive character replete with his native quirks and idiosyncrasies. His mother is played by #SurabhiPrabhavathi and his friend Gopal by #ChaitanyaGarikiparthi.
The romance between Raghava and Sandhya (#VarshaBollamma) has its own fun and tender moments but it is interesting to see how Sandhya evolves from a starry eyed girl to a strong willed woman who nudges Raghava in the right direction. On the other side, Gopal fancies the saleswoman at the mobile phone store Gautami (#DivyaSripada) and then lets go of the plot because their horoscopes do not match. Rejection on this count leaves Gautami fuming.
#MiddleClassMelodies stands out for zero overdose of emotions; the story of the archetypal middle-class Indian family is told as it is ; there is of course ladles of humour and anger as counter measures to the emotions. Melodies here does not refer to any bars or notes of music; it is in fact the bitter-sweet emotions that ordinary folks go through in the course of normal life.
#MCM is also the quintessential underdog story. As Raghava struggles with setting up his hotel, managing the mango tree that blocks the view and the impromptu garbage dump that comes up next to the place, it is the little things along the way that matter and not the outcome. It is a battle to secure one’s destiny. It is also an effort to rise above economic barriers and equally about social mores and prejudices. What matters here is conviction, some support and a lot of good fortune!
#VinodAnantoju sets up the treatment early on in the film, The opening scene is a house warming ceremony in a middle class household where a cow passing dung is considered good omen. The opening shot of the film is indeed just that! And a few minutes later, you have an elderly woman in a chair being lifted up by the ropes to enable her to reach the first floor.
There is one scene where someone is squeezing out the last dregs of paste from a toothpaste tube with the help of a stone. That I think is the defining moment of how the middle class sentiment works in India and for me how completely anathema it is to the home of films like #BahuBali ! Did someone here say “Butta Bomma” ??!!
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