Movie: Kanche
Rating: 3/5
Banner: First Frame Entertainment
Cast: Varun Tej, Pragya Jaiswal, Nikitin Dheer, Srinivas Avasarala, Gollapudi, Shavukaru Janaki , Satyam Rajesh, Posani and others
Dialogues: Sai Madhav Burra
Music: Chirantan Bhatt
Lyrics: Sirivennela Seetharama Sasthri
Cinematography: Jnanasekhar
Editing: Suraj Jagtap, Rama Krishna Arram
Producers: Saibabu Jagarlamudi, Y. Rajeev Reddy
Written and directed by: Krish
Release Date: 22 October 2015
Offbeat movies like Gamyam and Vedam made director Krish popular among movie lovers. He teaming up with Varun Tej, Naga Babu’s son, has raised expectations and the trailers have further upped the curiosity.
Touted to be the Tollywood’s first World War movie in Telugu movie, does "Kanche” live up to all the buzz it generated pre-release? Let’s find out..
Story
The story is set in 1940’s in Devarakonda and in Europe. Dhoopati Hari Babu (Varun Tej), belonging to lower wrung of the society is good at studies. At his Madras college, he meets Seetha Devi (Pragya Jaiswal) who also studies in the same college and happens to be daughter of his village’s Zamindar. They fall in love and plan to get married much against the wishes of Seetha Devi’s brother Eeshwar (Nikitin Dheer), a commander in Indian Royal Army. This happened some time back.
In the present times, the story is progressing in Europe where Hari Babu deputed as soldier is fighting as part of the allied forces against Hitler. Eeshwar is the commanding officer of his troupe. Now Eeshwar lands in trouble, will Hari Babu save him? Also what happens to his love?
Artistes' Performances
Varun Tej as soldier and young guy in 1940’s is suited well to the character. There is confidence in his performance compared to his first movie Mukunda. Pragya Jaiswal is beautiful as Jamindar’s daughter. She has limited expressions.
Avasarala tries to provide some laughs in the war zone with his timely satires. Nikitin Dheer as opposing force to Varun Tej is perfect.
Senior actors Gollapudi and Shavukaru Janaki have done justice to their roles. Satyam Rajesh, Posani, Singeetam in their brief roles are okay.
Technical Excellence:
Terrific war sequences and excellent making values shine through the film. V S Jnana Sekhar’s frames are not only richly beautiful, even the picturisation of war sequences is in world class range. Technically the movie is very sound. Art design and visual effects are perfect.
Music is mixed bag, while background score serves the mood of the movie, songs are in old style. Editing is neat. Action choreography especially the war scenes in Georgia are first rate.
Highlights:
- Dialogues
- Varun Tej
Drawbacks:
- Dull pace
- Ineffective Interval bang
Analysis:
Director Krish who is known to make films that touch upon issues that deal with human relations and the circumstances that mould them, tries to recreate the war-time setting. To that extent he is totally successful.
In Kanche, Krish talks of how love is nothing less than war with the world creating very many barriers in the name of caste, religion, region, etc.
His masterstroke is the little story of a new-born Jewish baby named Hope in German who is being hunted by the Nazi forces due to the inter-racial marriage of her parents.
Krish beautifully weaves in how the barriers that stop Hari and Sita from becoming one are no different from the Nazi doctrine of racial cleansing.
This is quite a different story, never attempted on Telugu screen, for sure. Sticking true to the story, Krish narrates the movie in serious manner, not including any necessary tracks.
First half of the movie is more focused on war and the setting up of love story between Varun and Pragya. Post interval, it is about conflict and the fight for his love and as well as saving a little girl in Italy.
Some scenes like a German girl coming out naked to save the soldiers and hero risking his life to save a months-old baby show the trademark style of Krish. They stand out in the movie.
Aided by great camera work and good writer, Krish narrates different story but on the downside, the film has too much of conversation among foreigners with popping up subtitles.
A improved interval bang would have been even better. Climax of the movie evokes mixed emotions.
He has used the dialogues about the caste differences effectively in the story. “Hitler Bhoomiki Inta Untadu Kani..”, “Uniki..Adi Oorike Vacchudantra..”, etc get claps from the audiences.
All in all, Krish has once again come up with a different movie with novel storyline. It appeals the film lovers and class audiences only.
Bottom-line: Good attempt
(Venkat can be reached [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
