rajanna

A young girl from a remote village in Telangana whose residents were slaves to the patwari system sets out to meet the first prime minister of the country to get his help to save her village from the clutches of   "Dorasani". This main plot seemed magical as lot can be worked out on the screen to showcase the post independent era of 50's. As the girl sets out to Delhi and waits on to meet the Prime minister she was again brought back to the village by the "Dorasani" and imprisoned. 

The Subplot opens up with a revolutionary freeing his followers from the British after a fight and they parting ways to meet again.This revolutionary (rajanna) comes across the atrocities in Telangana   and inspires the people there to revolt against the followers of nizam. As a result battle lines were drawn between the conservationists and revolutionary. The revolutionary succumbs after a valiant fight.

The main plot reopens with the revolutionary daughter singing a song and mesmerizing the first pm and a happy ending.

Rajanna suffered because of two strong story lines which were never connected. While the first one is all about a girls determined journey the second one is a revolutionary's determination to make people realize their energy levels and claim whats theirs. The director failed to realize both these strong story lines are not made for one movie. Sadly a brilliant story line dips after a thunderous start..And once the second half started i forgot the girl and fell in love with rajanna and his songs. And in the penultimate scenes the director suddenly brings the girl and the plot and like many Telugu films everything is hurried. 

I felt i am watching two movies at a time. 

Instead of showing rajanna as father of the girl,  the film would have worked if both the stories were run in tandem and rajanna accompanying the girl to achieve her goal.The director should have worked out the story in that way and lot could have been achieved with such chemistry. Both rajanna and the girl never meet and the much anticipated chemistry never exists.

Its a rare try in the mainstream cinema to bring out .the injustice and exploitation in telangana. sadly the film tries only in certain ways. Never the film projects pain in the most inflicting ways. The horrors of telangana were the most disturbing in the history of india. Here is  an opportunity but it was wasted on cinematic liberties.

Finally iam not saying this film is without merits. One scene will stay long in my memory where a mother with a baby in her lap singing songs to wake the baby and Nagarjuna affectionately wishes her only to find a horrifying tragedy  which shocks you to death.Or the other one where you expect the hero to beat the enemies but what happens is completely different. 

The songs are good. There were some touching moments. but as i said two different story lines and a great injustice done to the main plot. 

And the director should have remembered that rajanna dies literally in 1948 or so. 8 years or later mallama sets up to meet the prime minister Nehru. Its around 1956 then. So whats the take.? whether nizam went in such a horrifying state in 1956 or so(by then our state was unified and the horrors of nizams slowly subsiding).Lots of inaccuracies. Dear director when making a period movie lot should be studied and lot should be taken into account.

And sir you spoiled one of the best opportunities. 

In the movie nagarjuna makes every one reach their potential by his words and songs. Some one should have done the same while the making of the movie.