Friday, February 7, 2025

review Gandhi Tatha Chettu is a thought-provoking film

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Popular director Sukumar’s daughter Sukriti Veni played the protagonist in the film ‘Gandhi Tatha Chettu’. Padmavathi Malladi, who was the writer for films like ‘Mahanati’ and ‘Manamantha’ is making her debut as director with this film. Because of Sukumar’s daughter, big production house Mythri Movie Makers came forward to release it and took over the project. Sesha Sidhu Rao, who earlier directed a Telugu film titled ‘Choosi Choodangane’, has turned a producer with this film. It has already won many awards at international and national film festivals.
Story:
Rama Chandrayya (Anand Chakrapani) lives in a village, near Nizamabad, in his 15 acre agriculture land. Apart from this, he loves a big tree in his land and spends time under the tree. He names his granddaughter as Gandhi (Sukriti Veni), tells stories about Mahatma Gandhi, especially about non-violence, the ideologies which she follows in her real life. If someone scolds her, she never gets angry, never lies or never encourages bad things. Because of the local sarpanch, the sugarcane factory is closed. The village people are unable to sell their sugarcane and become penniless. At the same time, a businessman (Rag Mayur) steps into the village and asks everyone to sell their land, so that he can build a chemical factory. He says that it will help the villagers to earn money and also get jobs. Many villagers sell their land, but Rama Chandrayya decline sto do so, fearing they would kill the tree too. His son wants to sell the land and argues with him to sell it. Rama Chandrayya takes a promise from his granddaughter to save the tree and dies. How Gandhi saved the tree and also recovered the lands from the businessman is the crux of the story.
Analysis:
As the title suggests, the story revolves around a girl named Gandhi, grandfather and a tree. A 13-year-old girl, who follows the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi, saves the village, the tree and also the villagers from the clutches of a businessman. This is the story in a nutshell and the director Padmavathi narrated it in a very interesting way. Whatever she thought, she put it on the paper and everything was perfect. Without taking much time, she stepped into the story introducing all these characters.
The film has many thoughtful dialogues. The entire film itself is a thought-provoking one. Non-violence and trees are very important for the present society and with love you can do anything, though the result is late. There are a few scenes where the girl’s father realizes and touches the feet of his daughter. The last scene when the girl saves the cruel businessman from the villagers is also touching. The highlight of the movie is when the girl’s father fixes her marriage with someone at a very young age, the girl immediately goes and shaves her head.
There are many emotional and touching scenes in the film, but the only problem is that the film runs at a very slow pace. There are a few scenes that seem to be stretched, but in the end, Padmavathi’s attempt is laudable. Definitely, she made a good film with many realistic scenes. Many of the villagers were also part of the film and everyone acted in a realistic way. The music and the cinematography are good and the songs also come out well. The dialogues are very thoughtful and written well. Making of jaggery is more cinematic and the director could narrate in a very interesting way.
 When it comes to the performance, Sukriti steals the show. She is very authentic about the language and she acted very naturally. It’s really a daring decision to shave her head to get into her character. She is perfect for the role and emotes well with her stunning performance. Anand Chakrapani as grandfather did a commendable job and he is very natural in that role. He is one of the few good character artistes we have and one wonders why our filmmakers are not using him in a proper way. Rag Mayur, the young upcoming actor, already proved to be a good actor with a few of his films earlier. In this film, he played a negative role to the hilt. The girl’s parents and all other actors did their job well in other roles.
Finally, ‘Gandhi Tatha Chettu’ is a thought-provoking film made with an interesting idea which definitely is a timely reminder to the society. Director Padmavathi Malladi is successful as a debut director and should be appreciated for her efforts. Don’t know whether this kind of film will be a commercial success or not, but it is certainly a critically acclaimed one.

Film:  Gandhi Tatha Chettu
Cast: Sukriti Veni Bandreddi, Ananda Chakrapani, Rag Mayur, Raghuram, Bhanuprakash, Nehal Anand and others
Cinematography: Srijitha Cheruvupally and Vishwa Devabattula
Music: Ree
Producers: Naveen Yerneni, Yelamanchili Ravi Shankar, Sesha Sindhu Rao
Writer and director: Padmavathi Malladi
Release date: January 24, 2025
Rating: 3.5

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