Cinema Bandi
Director: Praveen Kandregula
Cast: Vikas Vasistha, Sandeep Varanasi, Rag Mayur, Uma YG
Netflix’s latest journey takes us to a Telugu film called Cinema Bandi. Directed by first-timer Praveen Kandregula, who says he has made several shorts which helped him to step on to this feature, it has an interesting concept of how cinema can be so addictive that it pushes people to step behind the camera, whatever be the pain and constraints. A tagline at the end of this movie read: “Everybody is a filmmaker at heart.” And the director has said in one of his interviews that “ the fascination for cinema is ingrained in all of us in varying proportions. If we ever randomly come across a movie shooting, we never look past it. Cinema Bandi is a genuine attempt to explore this love and fascination for cinema.”
Kandregula’s work talks about a poor autorickshaw driver’s tryst with cinema. Veerababu (played by Vikas Vasistha) discovers his route to joy when he finds an expensive video camera at the back of his vehicle. Apparently, someone had left that behind by mistake, a mistake which opens the door to the driver’s dream.
At first, he and his best pal, photographer Ganapathy (Sandeep Varanasi), think of selling the camera or renting it, and Veerababu’s wife is happy that the family with a small child could now have a slightly better life.
But Veerababu makes a U-turn and begins to wonder if he could actually make a film with the camera, and he ropes in a highly hesitant Ganapathy to be his cinematographer! And what about the story and what about the hero and heroine? Well, the driver’s wheels of imagination take off. While the plot comes from the tales written by a village elder, a local barber, Maridesh Babu (Rag Mayur), with his flawlessly fair good looks, is convinced to step into the shoes of the leading man. He would like his lady love, vegetable vendor Manga (Uma Yaluvalli Gopalappa) with a fiery temper, to act opposite him. But the director is not keen on this.
Veerababu’s efforts run into one road bump after another. The girl picked to play as the lead actress elopes with her lover midway during the shoot, which begins with the famous Titanic shot of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio standing on the ship’s deck with outstretched arms! Finally, Maridesh has his way, and Manga joins the cast.
There are some hilarious moments when Manga sells vegetables between the shots and a little boy steps in as continuity director (something that Indian cinema had given the pass for a long time). He seems bang on with his role, giving valuable inputs. Television, one would suppose, can also be a great educator, the boy’s certainly.
While Cinema Bandi has a very interesting message about how video cameras have afforded splendid opportunities for especially short moviemakers, the film appears rather raw. Was it done on purpose to keep it at the level of the work being shot by Veerababu and his team? Possible, but in the bargain, Cinema Bandi appears somewhat helter-skelter. The script needed to be tightened. And a certain lack of control over the medium appears apparent – much like Veerababu’s.
But yes, Cinema Bandi is an honest attempt created with a sense of passion.
Rating: 2.5/5
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is a movie critic who has authored Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s biography)
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