Cast: Nikhil, Swati, Pooja, Ravi Babu, Jeeva, Bhanu
Art: Nagendra
Lyrics: Krishna Chaitanya
Music: Sunny MR
Cinematography: Richard Prasad
Editing: Karthik Srinivas
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues & Direction: Sudheer Varma
Producer: Chakri Chigurupati
Rating: 3.0/5
Story
A
small golden idol of Lord Ganesh is stolen from the secret chambers of
Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The market price of
the idol is huge because of the antique value of the idol. Surya
(Nikhil) is a sophisticated pickpocketer in Hyderabad and he a girl and a
guy in his gang. Swati (Swati) is a journalist who just buys her
favorite yellow vespa scooter. Durga (Ravi Babu) is a baddie and he
wants to get hold of the idol by hook or crook. The rest of the story is
all about how the stolen Ganesh idol intertwines the lives of these
three people and others.
A
small golden idol of Lord Ganesh is stolen from the secret chambers of
Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The market price of
the idol is huge because of the antique value of the idol. Surya
(Nikhil) is a sophisticated pickpocketer in Hyderabad and he a girl and a
guy in his gang. Swati (Swati) is a journalist who just buys her
favorite yellow vespa scooter. Durga (Ravi Babu) is a baddie and he
wants to get hold of the idol by hook or crook. The rest of the story is
all about how the stolen Ganesh idol intertwines the lives of these
three people and others.
Artists Performance
Nikhil
has gone for a complete makeover. He looks sophisticated and yet
suitable for the role of a pickpocketer. His changed his dialogue
delivery and has given a controlled dialogue delivery. You will see a
new Nikhil playing an author-backed character in this film. This is the
best character for Nikhil after Happy Days film. Swati looks pretty good
and she has performed naturally. She is a spontaneous girl who looks
good even when she goes overboard. But, director has designed her
character well and made her be just character-driven. Pooja Ramachandran
(of Pizza fame) has done the role of hero’s friend and she has done
well. It’s one of the best roles for Ravi Babu. He plays the role of a
villain who has a slight comic side to him. Jeeva did the role of
antiques expert. Nara Rohit gave voiceover for intro shot and climax
shot. Hema lent her voice as mother of heroine.
Technical department
Story
- screenplay - direction: It’s a simple story of how the lead pair gets
entangled in villain’s quest for an antique Ganesh idol. What makes the
director Sudheer Varma’s work different is the screenplay and styling.
He seems like an avid fan of Ram Gopal Varma, Quentin Tarantino and Guy
Ritchie. Sudheer has an eye for detailing and logic. He has narrated the
story nicely without having unnecessary fights and songs. I liked the
way he opened the film in Quentin Tarantino style with Jogi Brothers and
how this thread is connected to main story in the later part of the
film. You can observe retro style music in the title cards (again
Quentin Tarantino style). He has used good screenplay technique while
introducing hero and heroine. The director’s research has lot of depth
and I liked the way he went into details in few scenes (like getting
antiques tested by Jeeva), which we hardly see in Telugu cinema these
days. The director’s cinematic liberty is just restricted to a couple of
scenes.
Other departments: Almost
all the technicians are new. Hence you can find a breath of fresh air
in this movie. All the songs scored by debutant Sunny MR for this movie
are of class nature and good. Background music is excellent and helped
the narrative. Among the songs, I liked ‘Life Antey’ song followed by
‘Krishnudi Varasulantha’ on screen. All songs are background songs and
situational (no lip sync required by actors). Cinematography by debutant
Richard Prasad is superb. He has terrific aesthetic sense and good
framing techniques. Most of the shots are taken in slow-motion.
Dialogues written by director are script driven and are apt for the
situations. Editing by Karthik Srinivas is near perfect. There is no
designated choreographer and action director for this film and are
performed by the cast impromptu. Production design is good. The producer
Chakri Chigurupati has blindly trusted the director. Otherwise, this
kind of film doesn’t come out.
Analysis
The
director has given tribute to great crime comedy directors like Ram
Gopal Varma, Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie with this film. Director
Sudheer Varma came out with fresh film despite having so many
influences. Swamy Rara is a perfect example for pure story telling using
24 crafts of filmmaking and for using actors just to play characters.
Each and every character is important and makes an impact. We have seen
umpteen number of Telugu filmmakers making debuts and wanting to make
movies like Ram Gopal Varma post 1990. But nobody came close to RGV in
making crime comedies like Chandra Sekhar Yeleti. After Chandra Sekhar
Yeleti, I feel that Sudheer Varma came close to deliver RGV kind of
crime comedy (Kshanakshanam and Anaganaga Oka Roju). On a whole, Swamy
Rara is a class crime comedy. And you may watch it!!!
Tail piece:
Internet, youtube and bit torrent offer unlimited opportunities to
learners. But it depends on how much the learner extracts information
from internet, process it and use it to his film. I liked the honesty in
director Sudheer Varma for adding ‘bit torrent’ as a media partner for
the movie. ‘Bit Torrent’ tribute also gels well with the theme of movie
(stealing that is).
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