Bedrulanka 2012 has a lot to rant about. The film’s writer-director Clax does not care about organised religion (which is how the film begins) or organised society (which is how it ends). We get a few ruminations on fear as well. One time, it comes in the context of religion, where the character of a kind saint (LB Sriram) reminds us that God exists in the absence of fear. Then there is Chitra (Neha Shetty), through whom we learn that love also exists in the absence of fear. Then, when the film gets too dramatic, Shiva (Kartikeya) informs us that people have been “donating” gold out of fear, not love.
Director – Clax
Cast – Kartikeya Gummakonda, Neha Sshetty, Ajay Ghosh, Goparaju Ramana, Rajkumar Kasireddy
There is also a debatable angle on how all religions are the same. There is Brahmam (Srikanth Iyengar) representing the Hindus, with Daniel (Jabardasth Ramprasad) standing in on behalf of the Christians. Considering the significant presence of Christians on the Godavari Coast, who also found representation in Buchi Babu Sana’s Uppena and its protagonist Aashirvadam, it is easy to understand why Muslims, Jains or Jews don’t exist in Bedrulanka’s purview of critique. But unlike say, a Bombay, Bedrulanka is not interested in the ‘bleeding’ heart humanism that unites people across religious lines. This is the kind of film that zooms wide in people’s faces across slowly moving frames to show how people (yes, all people) look gross while eating food after three days of fasting, be it a Pulihora or a Chicken Biryani. But at this point — when Bedrulanka is at its most unflinching with respect to its themes — the film also reaches its weakest point. In its attempt to display the sheer gullibility of the masses in the face of a Doomsday conspiracy, the writers of Bedrulanka cook up a story that seemingly assumes that the masses coming in to watch the film must be equally gullible. The hive mind of communities is neither hyperbole nor fiction, but the way the fooling be it in the doing (in the hands of Brahmam, Daniel and Bhushanam) or in the receiving (the masses) feels all too convenient, not to mention painfully simplistic.
Bedrulanka 2012 is not a film about a plot (there isn’t much) or characters (who don’t offer anything new). It concerns itself with the larger follies of human nature. People of this island don’t bother themselves with the truth, as we see in the way rumours of Shiva’s re-entry into Bedrulanka ensue. They are dishonest and duplicitous and also, ahem, sexually frustrated?! The last aspect, be it in the way Shiva asks Chitra for a kiss, or in the way Kasiraju (a wasted Rajkumar Kasireddy) and Brahmam solicit a local madame is more random than randy, treading the path of tackiness. The last act of the film is supposed to be revolutionary I guess, but we fall headfirst into a Sampoornesh Babu-territory that offers more whys when it should have made us all go aha!
Amidst all that is going on in the film, Shiva rarely features in it. He is often shown jumping in and out of boats from the river, dripping wet in all his peek-a-boos — which might as well act as a larger metaphor for his presence in the film. Kartikeya is sharp in his physique and angry in his countenance, his main character energy coming straight from his rational, city-boy ways more than his screen time. Coming from a village where everyone behaves the way they aren’t, he moves to Hyderabad to work as a VFX artist, where he gets really good at passing off fake as real. This foreshadows the third act, where he out-hoaxes a hoax, using falsehood as an antidote to bring people to their senses. The love story, or the dramatic portions here don’t account for much, but Mani Sharma however makes the best of it, emerging with a BGM more exciting and less comatose than the ones he has churned out lately. Ajay Ghosh, as Bhushanam, comes with an impressive performance, putting his cratered face to depict villainy with a gleeful flourish. Bedrulanka 2012 is an island in the archipelago of satires. As much as it holds its own, one wishes it tried harder, it soared stronger. How much does it take to go out there and make a film that does not water down (pun intended) its conviction in favour of convention? This is the kind of courage-over-fear/ truth-over-falsehood I hope I can see more in cinema.
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