'Pottel' is one of the theatrical releases this week. In this section, we are going to tell you what the film is like.
Plot:
The film's story takes place in the 1980s when the feudalistic Patel-Patwari system was prevalent in parts of Telangana. The setting is a nondescript village named Gurramgattu. To ensure the prosperity of the village, the villagers must offer a goat as a sacrifice to the village goddess, Balamma, once every 12 years. The responsibility of raising this goat falls on Gangadhar (Yuva Chandra), a young shepherd from the village.
Gangadhar, who comes from the village's most oppressed and socially repressed community, thinks differently. He aspires to provide his daughter, Saraswati, with a good education. However, the village Patel (Ajay), a tyrannical figure who claims to be possessed by the goddess, opposes Saraswati's schooling. As years pass by, Gangadhar's humble dream and Patel's inhuman authoritarianism find themselves at loggerheads. Meanwhile, deaths of the poor due to disease continue to rock the village.
Post-Mortem:
The film aspires to be rooted and raw and disturbing, but then it has no understanding of how casting has to be pulled off when you have set out to do that. The moment you see the likes of Srikanth Iyyengar and Jeevan Kumar, it becomes hard to find a film realistic. These artists, along with Chatrapathi Sekhar, are meant for mainstream, regular cinema roles with broad sketches. This brings us to the casting of Ajay as the main antagonist. You have to give it to him that he manages to make his cruel character hateful despite doing so many pointless negative roles for years. Credit where it is due, his performance is the only flawless element in 'Pottel'.
The film has too much exposition and too little emotional churning in it. The characters spell out every single emotion/beat. In a crucial scene involving Ananya Nagalla's Bujjamma, we get to see her vent out and declaim, speak out and scream. It was designed to be a rousing moment sans the necessary mood-building.
There is a difference between having questions and raising them before authority. The oppressed might be too weak for the latter, but they are not too dumb to be capable of the former. In 'Pottel, disease afflicts a generation and yet, we don't see any Dalit villager ask even a sarkari employee the right questions. Let's just grant the film the benefit of doubt. Maybe, back in the 1980s, there were hamlets where people were so shockingly voiceless, so dehumanized as to not ask even existential questions for once. But the same set of villagers, in a momentous scene, get physically aggressive all of a sudden.
The tone in 'Pottel' is jagged. In a night scene, when men booze and laze around, Bujjamma almost gets groped and molested. In the next minute, she is seen being subtly smitten by Gangadhar. There is a midget but why? Why do our films use dwarf characters as props?
Ajay's Patel is woefully inadequate. He maintains the same mood for decades. The only time he comes out of that mood is when he fakes being possessed by the goddess. His language is that of dominance and he makes it obvious in every other scene. Bujjamma has known his true colours right from childhood but doesn't have a chat about it with her husband. She comes begging to his home in a scene, putting herself in danger. If she knew Patel is incorrigible, why do something so stupid? He is the most dreaded person in the village but how come an ordinary school teacher casually covets something that is so precious to him?
If 'Pottel' appears too violent, it's because it is not too violent but because it is torture porn. Instead of disturbing the audience, it is content with relaying bland violence for shock value.
Closing Remarks:
'Pottel' could have been Tollywood's answer to Kollywood's 'oppression-depression' cinema with an ideological undertone. But it is content with low-key ideas. Full of narrative loopholes, the film is a bore fest.
