What’s interesting in these “new-gen” movies — especially in the context of Telugu cinema — is how interestingly, how consistently the women are written.
Spoilers ahead…
The “new-gen” in Telugu cinema may not be as big a thing as it is in Malayalam, but even the odd films that trickle out point to a definite sensibility. It’s a gentler version of the Hollywood rom-com sensibility: you know it if you’ve seen Pelli Choopulu. It’s the kind of sensibility that begs to be described by words like “casual” and “breezy”: if these films were people, they’d be in bermudas and flip-flops on a hammock by a beach. However explosive the situation, the dialogue feels like some variant of “Chill, bro! Let’s light one up and talk this over!” And there’s an enormous amount of dignity. The premise (or heck, even the title) of Ravikanth Perepu’s Krishna and His Leela may sound sleazy: it’s about a man who loves two women. But the film doesn’t wink at you. It isn’t out to titillate you. It treats the problem as seriously as you would if confused between menu options at a multicuisine restaurant. It’s “Hmmm… I’ll have this… No, wait, I’ll have that… Excuse me, sorry, hope it’s not too late to change my order, but could I have…“, but with women.
Read the rest of this article here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/telugu-review/krishna-and-his-leela-on-netflix-a-classy-well-written-update-on-the-one-man-two-women-premise-baradwaj-rangan-shraddha-srinath-siddhu/
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Aman Basha
June 25, 2020
Even the Telugu new gen still carries the whiff of yesterday Telugu mythological, what with the characters in the triangle being Krishna, Radha and Satya. Really happy to hear that dubbing artistes are given rightful credit. It became impossible for me to wholly enjoy Samantha’s performances without constantly thinking of Chinmayi in front of a mike. Anushka’s case is understandable as her bubbly voice is at total odds with the regal roles she’s asked to play and the rest are simply forgettable.
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Anu Warrier
June 25, 2020
Ooh, nice! I have to watch this one. Thanks for the recommendation.
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krishikari
June 25, 2020
Hmm… Sounds like Shudh Desi Romance
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Rahul
June 26, 2020
Recently saw the Telugu movie “Pressure Cooker” on prime. Things I found interesting.
There is not much “heroic” about the hero. In one scene the girl abuses some ruffians eve teasing her. The guy is more concerned about what would have happened if they had heard her.
The girl proposes to the guy. He does not reply because he has other things on his mind. But this is hardly a dramatic event in their lives. There is just a slight hint of awkwardness but they just carry on with their dating \ friendship as before.
There is an intense kiss – but it is not portrayed as sexual in nature. More like an expression of love.
The film is supposed to be a comedy that takes an overly preachy tone in the second half. That said, it is funny in parts and when it is not, it is not trying to hit us on the head with its lame jokes, forcing to make us laugh. Just like its hero, the movie has a lackadaisical mood.
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MANK
June 26, 2020
Oh yeah. Loved this movie,The film resonated with me on a very personal level. I especially loved the female characters and the performances of the actresses . Though I wish Siddu was a better actor, there are times, like in the final confrontation with the two lovers, were he is not very effective. But it’s great to see a love triangle tackled with humanity and realism, without devolving into cheap melodrama or raunchy comedy. Contrary to popular perceptions, much of which is thanks to the movies, Being caught between two women is not fun at all, not for a man with a beating heart and blood in his veins. It’s above all else painful; for him and the women involved. You never find a moment of peace or innocence. You feel guilty whichever woman you’re with, because you feel you’re cheating on the other. And it’s not easy to pull away from either, because you have gone so faremotionally, it’s difficult to pull yourself back. I really felt that this film conveyed this aspect beautifully , not just through Siddu’s character, but also through Sampat Raj’s father character. Whatever choice you make in the end, you end up losing.
it’s interesting to note that it’s no indie picture, the film is produced by the legendary Suresh productions of D. Rama Naidu , and made under the supervision of Rana Dagubatti. That makes it much more special and good thing that Rana didn’t act in the film
I found the film to be a clever subversion of traditional mainstream Telugu film formulas; the mythological and the one man two women/wife tropes which have been a mainstay of the industry. Chiranjeevi , Mohan Babu, Jagapati Babu , all made their careers playing men juggling two women in utterly crass formulaic films which made its way into Tamil ; Rajni in Veera, and Hindi: Govinda in saajan chale sasural and Anil Kapoor in Judaai. So this is a welcome subversion of that mainstream trope.
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MANK
June 26, 2020
Regarding Hollywood sensibility, I found a definite influence of Woody Allen, especially the fourth wall breaking narrator as well as the romantic complications of a guy caught between women who are superior than him. Regarding the classiness, I too feel the filmmakers were obsessed with staying away from the mainstream here, though I felt the character Ruksar was more of a symbol or a trope than a full blooded character , and someone with whom the hero could have a happy ending. I would have preferred some more intensity and drama in the final confrontation scene between the three; it just didn’t register with the required emotional impact. I also found the final relationship equation between the three rather unrealistic, having gone though so much emotionally though the course of the film, though the overall classiness and tastefulness suits a lot of scenes, especially the scenes were Radha and Sathya comes together, with Krishna caught in between. I especially liked the moment where Radha and Sathya meet for the first time, having only heard about each other upto that point.
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brangan
June 27, 2020
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Satya
June 27, 2020
A film does so much to the viewer. Brightens their mood, dampens it, or makes them feel squishy or uneasy or pushes them to a high. They, at times, make people feel irritated and exhausted too.
But this one made me feel nothing. Peaceful watch. Left me unmoved. What to define such an experience? Is it a fault within me, or a trait these kind of narratives usually have?
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tonks
June 27, 2020
I’d never have watched this movie, but for the title tagline, which immediately piqued my interest. And I’m glad I did. It’s everything you’d described in the review : classy, and admirably non judgemental about its women (I loved that).
The three main characters and his mom were all easy on the eyes, but Rukhsar was simply gorgeous. I believe human beings are inherently polygamous, so I found such a situation plausible, but of course it’s the cheating aspect that makes what he does wrong. Even though it doesn’t plumb emotional depths, I enjoy movies about relationships so I liked this. Thank you for posting this review so I could discover this movie.
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Faroo
June 28, 2020
I found this to be a drag and stopped watching midway. I think I have outgrown the man-child focused movies. It felt like an english rom-com transplanted to India, but lacking the underlying authenticity. Similar to those Hindi movies in which Akshay kumar is a college student with a swank apt in new york.
Surprising that the trend of having a non-good-looking friend is still alive and well in such movies, and what exactly was that East-European woman doing early in the movie? It seemed so forced. And those ladakh scenes — can we stop it already with bearded men on bullets travelling to ladakh everytime they want to discover themselves?
The most interesting character to me was Siddhu’s mom — relatively a very young mom, scarred by her marriage, but unfortunately none of that scarring seems to have an effect on Siddhu (man-child that he is) and she gets very little screen time.
I am probably going against the grain here, but I think the major reason I was put-off was Rukhsar – the embodiment of a male fantasy friend – completely unrealistic and existing for the sole reason the scriptwriter couldnt come up with a better friend for Siddhu. For some reason the telugu she spoke sounded exactly like a punjabi girl trying to pass off as a deep-south tamil ponnu.
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brangan
June 28, 2020
Faroo:can we stop it already with bearded men on bullets travelling to ladakh everytime they want to discover themselves?
Hahahahaha. I feel your pain!
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Rahul
June 28, 2020
“but in jettisoning everything from the past, they also let go of the sharp emotions some of us want in a romantic drama ” – totally agree . Though I enjoyed the movie , in the end I was looking for drama, not for some gyaan about loving both of them etc. Sometimes I feel that the story is influenced by the actors’ limitation of not being able to pull off high strung melodramatic moments satisfactorily. This is what I felt in “Pressure Cooker” as well.
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Aman Basha
June 28, 2020
It’d be appropriate to place on the thread about a Telugu film called Krishna and His Leela, an article exploring the culture, history and legacy of the Telugu mythologicals and of the star who became synonymous with them.
https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/telugu-features/ntr-the-star-who-became-a-god/
Anxiously awaiting the opinions of all the amazing commentators here as to help understand and improve my writing better.
Thanks BR!
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MANK
June 29, 2020
It’s a really nice write-up Aman. I’m a big fan of NTR in mythological. No actor marries the epic grandeur and serene stillness that’s required of these roles as NTR did. His performance in DVSK is phenomenal indeed, Each character is rooted in a basic rasa, veeram, shringaram and karunam. But my favorite has to be Narthanasala. The contrast he creates between Arjuna and Brihannala is astounding
Narthanasala also has one of my favorite NTR- Balamuralikrishna songs
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Aman Basha
June 29, 2020
Thanks MANK, yes, serene stillness is the major plus NTR had w.r.t these mythological roles. The best example is the scene in Mayabazar as he stands next of Balarama as he chastises Duryodhana, arms folded, he genuinely feels like a sculpture. Almost no other actor have this quality, maybe except Mahesh Babu today.
And he was very good in Nartanasala, playing a trans role without hamming it up or making it a joke. But the film’s highlight is SV Ranga Rao as Keechaka. What a performance that was! Although NTR was terrific as Duryodhana in DVSK, SVR as Duryodhana or any negative role is just something else.
DVSK is an out and out NTR show and especially in that part of his career, where he was wooing heroines old enough to be his grand daughter, showed that his core strength was still intact. Even more impressive is that a 4 hour movie was shot only in 40 days with him functioning as director, producer and even editing at some points
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Isai
June 30, 2020
There are parts of this movie that I could relate to: Krishna pining for his hometown, Satya needing her space etc. But, I couldn’t relate to or sympathise with a guy who is effortlessly lying, cheating and being so indecisive or women who so easily buy his lies. But, I found two aspects quite interesting – a good portrayal of mate-choice copying and the hero seeing his mother’s spirit in Radha.
When Radha comes to his sister’s wedding, I thought no wonder his mom likes Radha who physically resembles her and then we get this ‘spirit’ dialogue in the climax. It would have been nice if BR had asked about this dialogue and the casting during the interview.
This idea has always been controversial ever since Freud theorised it. I remember seeing a similar dialogue in Geetha Govindham but I wonder if there was any other film with a similar dialogue.
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Varsha Ganesh
July 3, 2020
This film reminded me of Unnale Unnale a lot. Siddu resembles Vinay in a lot of angles with that boyish charm and goofy smile. Satya also reminded me of the always strict Sadha and Rukhsar, Tanuja. In that movie and this, I couldn’t see why he was attracted to Satya, considering he’s so happy-go-lucky and chilled out and she seems to be the opposite. Makes for a great friend who can push you when you need it, but I wasn’t really sold on the romance.
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Honest Raj
July 5, 2020
I’m not a big fan of relationship dramas but this one sort of felt like a feel-good movie. Like Varsha says, the hero bears a striking resemblance to Vinay. The other heroine (Radha character) too, in a way, resembles Poonam Kaur.
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