Sundaram Master, produced by RT Team Works and Goal Den Media, is out in theatres. In this section, we are going to review the latest BO release:
Plot:
In Miryalametta, a self-styled government school teacher named Sundaram (Harsha Chemudu) must teach tribals functional English. The residents know verbal English but are dumb when it comes to the spellings. While facing an existential crisis in the process of understanding their ignorant English, Sundaram must accomplish the local MLA's task: he must discover the one valuable thing that makes Miryalametta so relevant to looters. After discovering it, Sundaram must trick the villagers and smuggle it out of the remote village. Can he?
Performances:
Viva Harsha (aka Harsha Chemudu) is capable of proper melodrama unlike a lot of his contemporary comedians. That's what makes him a good choice for the character. His comic timing on display is nothing new (we have seen it all before in many movies and YouTube videos); he is nuanced in the scenes where the story progresses in the second half.
Barring him, Divya Sripada (as Myna, a villager crushing on Sundaram) and 'KGF' fame Bala Krishna (and a couple of other unknown but able artists), the film makes do with cameos. Harshavardhan of 'Amrutham' fame is seen as a power-hungry legislator and is limited to a couple of scenes.
Technical aspects:
Sri Charan Pakala's music and Deepak Yaragera's cinematography, in that order, give the film little edge. Editor Karthik Vunnava is outdone by Art Director Chandra Mouli Eathalapaka. Sound Designer Sai Maninder Reddy and dance choreographer Vijay Binni understand the tribal setting.
Post-Mortem:
Director Kalyan Santhosh makes the male lead look dumb while the female lead is much smarter. The film raises a voice against the exploitative system that looks down upon the ways of life of tribes as useless and superstitious. The chasm between modernity and self-sufficient, rural, pastoral living is not just aesthetic but also mental/intellectual. How death and loss, value and life are perceived by people living in cities and those who are cut off from the rest of the world can be a total contrast.
The second half establishes this dichotomy so well. However, a couple of scenes could have been mounted intelligently. The scene where the villagers enjoy a nail-biting cricket match on TV is not about them having fun on a relaxed day. It's about the inescapable, natural instinct of nationhood that pervades all communities unless they have been brainwashed into hating the nation for ideological reasons. The cricket match episode shows that even if we are simple creatures with minimal creature comforts, something in us aspires for a sense of collectivity. Nationhood answers this urge. Miryalametta's residents don't read newspapers and yet they love a revolutionary like Bhagat Singh and a pacifist like Gandhi. This philosophical underpinning could have been conveyed more specifically.
The film could have benefited from crafting Sundaram in a more believable manner. No government teacher would be so dumb as to ask an MLA to bring in the military to a village. Sundaram's letters to the MLA smack of verbal diarrhea. The climax suffers from two fronts: ideas and execution.
Closing Remarks:
'Sundaram Master' might find takers upon its OTT release. The film is enjoyable on the humour front (although not fully) and its humanistic outlook is touching.
