Sye Ra Narasimha Reddy
MOVIE REVIEW Released in Hindi and Telugu
B Y M EENA Y EGGINA
and turns them into upper caste, Hindi speaking North Indian heroes. Sometimes the appropriateness is so crass and obvious that it’s difficult to look away! Chiranjeevi as Narasimha is back in his glorious form and how! He makes you realize why he remains an unbeat- able actor/star. Sick of third rated so-called stars with weak voices, junk faces and sexist moves (not that Chiranjeevi is not, I mean sexist) Chiranjeevi’s Sye Ra comes as a breath of fresh air and reminds one how powerful good acting and a robust, well modulated voice could be. A strong voice booming nationalistic pride in unadluterated Telugu (which became a rarity in itself with macabre words and slang mixed in our good old Telugu language these days) and with a personality to match, Chiranjeevi reminds audi- ences why he is a born star that came up the hard way! Watching his son, brother, or nephew, spit on the audi- ence what they call acting, after seeing the glorious Chiranjeevi in Sye Ra, would definitely be a torture to the eyes and cacophony to the ears! The hero in this movie, of course like in all Chiru’s films, is invincible. Narasimha, probably like Jhansi Laxmi Bai started out to fight the British to save his province and his fiefdom but the very fact that he had the guts to defy and beat the British in several battles itself is a rarity in the 18th century. He fought a guerilla war against them from Nallamala forest, and if not for the betrayal of an insider he would have probably fought them for a long time. And won too. Added to his good performance, Chiranjeevi with his curly wig, kind face with subtle makeup and slim looks, turns out to be a good eye candy, and I enjoyed watching him. I took my mom, who stopped going to theaters, to the Great Mall to warch Sye Ra , and she relished the almost three hour movie with no complaints. Though the luxury lounge could have helped her comfort, she was also charmed with the story, action, sentiment and the immacu- late nature of the movie. Yes, mind you, this Chiru movie has no item songs, no double meaning dialogues, no hero- ine exploitation that you see in most major movies includ- ing Chiru’s own other ones. However, even here, Tamanna and Nayanatara are what all women are in most Indian movies: visual exhibi- tions! Both women are submissive, follow the path the hero delegates to each, but must say remain progressive and understanding for their times. Both meet, console each other and become friends, despite knowing that they share a love-interest, Narasimha! Seriously? Watching Tamanna, with her artificially tanned body and dubbed voice to represent South Indian women, made me wonder why not cast a true South Indian actress in this
Starring: Chiranjeevi, Amithabh Bachchan, Nayanatara, Tamanna, Jagapathy Babu, Sudeep Music: Amit Trivedi, Julius Packiam Direction: Surender Reddy Most of the time we are bombarded with so much his- tory about North Indian heroes –– the then freedom fight- “Sye Ra is one such movie that recalls the story of this glorious freedom fighter that rallied together all forces - farmers, rulers and religions – to fight the British, but is sadly underrated in the annals of Indian history simply because he belonged to the South.”
ers and the now fair-skinned Hindi Film heroes –– that most South Indians tend to forget their own regional histo- ry! Ouch , but true! Very rarely do we witness a movie based on Southern path-breakers! Sye Ra is one such movie that recalls the story of this glorious freedom fighter that rallied together all forces - farmers, rulers and religions – to fight the British, but is sadly underrated in the annals of Indian history simply because he belonged to the South. Even earlier than 1857 sepoy revolt in the North, which we were taught as the first freedom fight, an unknown peasant chief in remote Andhra roared like a tiger and frightened the British so intensely that they had to hang his severed head for 30 years in pub- lic view to keep the rousing pride of locals under control. Unlike Uri, Kalank, Baby, Kesari ( Kesari strangley makes a hero out of a British soldier, Kesari, fighting an INDIAN MUSLIM king!!!!!!) and several such Hindi movies that sep- arate Indians by their religion (Akshay Kumar goes a step further and steals the glorious stories of the modern South Indian social workers –– one Christian from Kerala and one Hindu from Tamil Nadu (Airlift and Padman respectively) –– Chiranjeevi with his curly wig, kind face with subtle makeup and slim looks, turns out to be a good eye candy, and I enjoyed watching him
8 www.indiaparentmagazine.org
October 2019
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog