When I first heard the title Anger Tales, there was the obvious assumption that this film would glorify the emotion, anger. Having watched the film, I can assure that this film does exactly that, albeit in ways that would totally surprise the viewer. A stark departure from mainstream Telugu cinema where rage acts as a trigger for violence and the eventual rise of the protagonist as a saviour, Anger Tales turns its gaze inward, by presenting anger as a catalyst of self-preservation in each of its protagonists, as opposed to larger-than-life bravura.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth,” says the Bible. Director Prabhala Tilak and his co-writer Karthikeya Karendla, go a step ahead and show us that their proverbial path of inheritance is paved with a single, revolutionary moment, where they weaponize their anger.
Film – Anger Tales
Director – Prabhala Tilak
Cast – Venkatesh Maha, Madonna Sebastian, Bindu Madhavi, Phani Acharya
Benefit Show, the first film of the anthology revolves around Ranga (Venkatesh Maha), a president of an unnamed star’s fan club from a nondescript village between Vijayawada and Guntur, trying to organise a preview show at 10pm in a single screen theatre. The show’s start time keeps getting postponed, as the film’s producers fails to send the film’s KDM key. Talk of the film tanking flows from the internet to real-time chatter, cutting deep into the film’s hype. Tensions flare up when Pachabottu Seenu (Suhas), the local hotshot politician who purchased 200 tickets of the preview, takes the delay personally and gets into a tussle of egos with Ranga. From the colour of the theatre’s name board to the tilak on Ranga’s forehead, Benefit Show is prominently painted in hues of red, highlighting the short’s underlying themes of passion, impulsiveness and rage. The film is at one level, a psychological and narrative extension of the theatre fight scene in Thallumaala, and on another level, a pseudo-documentary on fan culture in the Telugu states. Outside of Puri Jagannath’s Neninthe (2008), there hasn’t been many films that raises the question, “Why do fans care so much about their favorite star and risk everything, when that star is not even aware of this fan’s existence?”. The film explores the inner lives of countless hardcore devotee-fans, with Venkatesh Maha portraying the role of Ranga with great sympathy and dignity. Benefit Show also stands out in the anthology, for its comparatively longer runtime and incessant profanity.
Food Festival is the marriage story of Pooja (Madonna Sebastian), a self-proclaimed foodie whose life is turned upside down, post her wedding to Rajeev (Tharun Bhascker), a health-conscious vegetarian. There is a very telling scene in the short, where Pooja’s husband and mother-in-law leave her alone at the dining table after a meal. She wants to take another serving, but sees empty utensils, following which she makes do by licking a spoon filled with leftover chutney. The facade of her marriage falls apart, when Pooja is asked by her doctor to eat eggs because of weak health. The film’s story itself resembles an egg, on the outside it provides social commentary on the absurdities of the rich (the part involving a lady asking alexa if honey is vegan explains it all), while on the inside, the film uses different facets of food consumption as a metaphor to explain how marriages kill the desires of women under the guise of status and societal expectations. While the film’s ending felt too convenient, you can’t help but root for Pooja in this effective feminist drama.
Continuing the theme of women suffering in marriages, An Afternoon Nap, starring Bindu Madhavi as the film’s lead, is about Radha, whose simple, everyday life takes a turn for the worse as her afternoon nap is constantly disturbed by her landlady gossiping with her relatives. Much like Pooja in the Food Festival, she gets diagnosed by a doctor as well, of acute migraines, which are further aggravated by her loud neighbors. The film shifts its pace, with fast cuts and close ups in a montage on one hand to show Radha’s patience being tested to its limits, and a meditative, philosophical look of Bindu as a housewife. The latter portions of the film show us Radha’s relationship with her household and husband. The pallavi of Tyagaraja’s Brova Bharama plays multiple times during the film, giving it a melancholic, inspired touch. An Afternoon Nap easily has the anthology’s most exciting pay-off, with Radha’s frustration taking her to extreme lengths.
The last story of this quartet is Helmet Head, a story of Giri (newcomer Phani Acharya), a 32-year old guy with a lousy job, whose prospects in the arranged marriage market are constantly derailed with his fast-balding issue. After two feminist stories, the director now turns his gaze towards a pressing male issue, the treatment of which was both amusing and insightful. The life of a woman negotiating in a stereotypically female space (house) in An Afternoon Nap was mirrored in Helmet Head, where we see Giri constantly battle roads and traffic cops, who in true Murphy’s Law style keep bumping into him only when he is travelling without a helmet.
Barring Rajeev from Food Festival, the men in Anger Tales are written with compassion and nuance. Even Radha’s husband, who is your run-of-the-mill, middle aged Indian man, who as a character shows potential to be easily villainized, is treated with empathy. The women in this anthology get a rallying call-to-arms, to break free and lead lives on their own terms. The film’s stories are a delightful reflection of the director Prabhala Tilak’s aspirations for men and women, respectively. The layered writing of Anger Tales finds adequate support in its format-free, new age style of filmmaking that improves the film’s viewing quality enormously. Anger Tales requires a patient viewing and thoughtful introspection from the viewer, and once that happens, the film will resonate deeply with them, as they also get rightfully entertained.
#Edgy #atmospheric #deeply #moving #Cinema #express
