Sri Ramadasu

Traditionally, we begin any new project with a prayer to God. Kids start their notebooks with a “SrE rAma”. I start with a movie about Him. Unfortunately, darSakendra K Raghavendra Rao’s Sri Ramadasu fills me with bitterness.

Let us flash back to the 17th century. Kancherla Gopanna lived in a village near Bhadrachalam, located on the riverside of Godavari. A great devotee of Lord Sri Rama, he wrote kErtanas praising Him. While working as a tahsildar under a Golconda Nawab, he misappropriated about six lakhs of rupees and reconstructed the temple in Bhadrachalam. Upon discovery, he was dismissed from his job and jailed. For twelve years, he wrote and composed what are now called rAmadAsu kErtanalu, wrote a rAmadAsu Satakam (“makuTam: dASaradhi karuNApayonidhi“), and I don’t know what else he did in that jail then. Gopanna later became popular as Sri Ramadasu.

See the richness in the story? Replete with carnatic, criminal, communal, devotional and other aspects. Ramadasu wrote songs praising Rama, imploring Rama, pleading Sita (for recommendation), accusing Rama (of apathy), and apologizing Rama. A gamut of emotions spread across a gamut of musical notes!

I read this story in my fifth class. This gives a better picture.

In Annamayya, I disapproved the excuses called characters played by Brahmanandam and Gundu Hanumanta Rao, Mohan Babu and Roja. There were few other things that bothered me. However, Nagarjuna and Keeravani more than compensated.

When I heard that the same “team” was shooting Sri Ramadasu, I became apprehensive. The songs were disappointing. Veturi’s title song here paled in comparison with his song in Annamayya. (“Sankha chakramulu aTu iTu kAgA” especially bothered me.) Keeravani’s orchestration fell short of my expectations; I was hoping to hear the sounds of instruments of those times though I wasn’t sure what they were. For all you know, they could’ve been bhajans in a devotional album of the present times.

But then I had to watch the movie as there are few “different” ones. The movie, I realized, was a disaster. Instead of going back four hundred years, the “team” seemed to have decided to simply don fancy dresses and be themselves. The speech and the diction, especially of the Gods, was atrocious. The casting was at times inappropriate. The characters, well, they were character-less. Three hours, and even the eponymous protagonist’s character lacked depth. I give it that Nagarjuna’s acting looked sincere.

Sets and costumes alone can’t make a setting. The peculiarities in social, behavioral, regional, religious aspects of those times play a crucial role. Was there one such peculiarity portrayed in the movie? The literature may have seen great progress today; however, that there has been a change in speech and a deterioration in diction is undeniable. How well did the actors enunciate their lines? Gods being omnipotent, we attribute them with perfection even in diction and appearance. Neither did Suman resemble a Greek god, nor did Sameer’s diction suggest learnedness. Coming to the characters, can anybody match between the actors and the characters? Does anybody remember who played what character? And how much can one say about the character of Ramadasu?

In the name of entertainment for the masses, KRR dwelt on his favorite theme of sensuality and humor of crudity. A quarter of the movie was reenactment of the epic Ramayana. May be there were good things about the movie, but the negative ones overwhelmed me. The saint composer, I felt, was another excuse.

Having walked out of the theater, I already began forgetting most of the experience except that I had sat beside a drunk. Then the marketing campaign across all the Telugu channels began haunting me.

The Govt, the film industry, and even the swamis went gaga about the movie’s greatness. They proclaimed that KRR is the greatest Telugu director, that Nagarjuna has given the finest performance ever, that the movie is the greatest Telugu devotional movie, that the movie is among the three greatest Telugu movies. Thankfully, none mentioned what the other two great movies are.

Then came programs and interviews on the making of the movie. KRR said that he had been writing rAmakoTi throughout the shooting schedule. Nagarjuna said that his fans started calling him “Ramadasu”; Sneha sitting beside him added that her fans started calling her “Kamala”. Pooh! I could see they weren’t attempting deadpan humor. Looking at the seriousness with which they said those, I felt their performances during the interview were Oscar-worthy. At least give these poor under-rated actors the nominations. Please!

Despite Einstein’s reminder of the infinitude of stupidity, I like to believe that it was hypocrisy. Cynic, ain’t I? And for all I care, the team could have written Eroticoti, as long as they remained true and sincere to the subject they were handling. But again, swindlers in the name of religion and God are most common.

Image Source: Idle Brain

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