Now Premiering - Anaganaga Oo Athidi

Anaganaga Oo Athidi (AOA) – Drama Tension from the Old School

It’s rare to see a philosophical thriller, with equal amounts of messaging and dramatically sucking aspects put forward in an apt method to suit the world of its story. This movie gets these elements right from it’s fore-bearer Aa Karaala Rathri  (2018), which itself is a cinematic rendition of a Stage Drama going by the same name written in the ‘80s.

The macrostructure to the minuscule lines is all old school. The movie starts with Tanikella Bharani’s voice stating “Spark inside the man has led to the Spark he discovered for Survival “. There are many such dialogues which are strongly mouthed by the characters, one of the best lines being – “ Khaamaniki Kallu Levu, Aasa Ku Chaavu Ledu “, which means “ Perv is blind, Greed is immortal”. These set of lines perfectly describe the motive of a family of 3 – Malli ( Payal Rajput ), Annapurna  ( Veena Sundar ) and Subbaiah ( Ananda Chakrapani ), who live a life of abject poverty.

As heavy as the movie is in its dialogues and philosophy, it’s lighter on Budget. AOA is completely rid of the paraphernalia of a mainstream Telugu film, or even a standard Telugu thriller. It doesn’t even have a runtime extending 100mins and a camera which shoots in 2.35:1, proper cinematic aspect ratio (the movie shot on a squarish 16:9 ratio). It builds up its dramatic tension from the old school with only 3 locations ( a Riverbank, a downtrodden and isolated house and a Sarayi Paka – not exactly a bar though ). After all, it’s inspired by a Drama where the methods are to run a story within limited space.

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The philosophy of Poverty and Greed are shown with textbook-style perfection from the writers. The family’s plight to kick out their Poverty with the driving force being Greed to procure the wealth with unethical ( illegality is too far at this point ) procedures takes a toll on their thinking. Mallika tries to ease out her guest by sexually tempting him. Annapurna wants to have the job clean with Kasaraganna Aaku to prepare the poison. While Subbaiah is spared with the execution idea, he’s the schemer who emotionally turns the tables. All of them pay the deserving price at the end, subtlely showing that being poverty struck also takes away the richness in values that make us human along with wealth, respect and power.

The characters bring in a volley of twists organically with just their presence in contrast to the clever plot twists we get these days. It should be accepted that both keep you on the edge of the seat, but pulling off a traditional style is difficult than a current one. Music by Aroll Corelli is rampant and proactive in its tone rather than being an ebbing flow of orchestration. It’s too loud and obvious at times but once the stage is set, it does its job for a hard-hitting hour.

There are a few problems with the screenplay which sometimes deflates all the spine-tingling sequences. The major one being the anti-climactic twist, where the big reveal is wasted just because it plays out 5mins earlier than where it should have been, only to make us sob. The riveting tension that was playing suddenly turns into a melodramatic desperation saga at the end ( which does pay off as it is), but the main act for the motive loses its steam. The original script was what the team would have stuck, but a small adjustment could multiply the staggering impact last hour was creating instead of slightly being a dud.

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Anagana Oo Athidi grabs you with its setup, conviction with which the characters are designed and depth as well as suited lines that they talk. It’s appreciable to adopt such a script, even though it was a slim margin that was missed, as it's ultimately a needed proof of how rich the stories from the drama era or folklore can be for an adaptation into today’s cinema.