Now Premiering - Cinema Bandi

Cinema Bandi – Slipshod Duo of Village and Cinema

Netflix’s new rural and coming of age title Cinema Bandi has a runtime similar to an independent art film – 108mins. These 100-110 minute movies have a greater depth to cover by focusing on one primal storyline which has a multiplied dramatic capabilities. Cinema Bandi has its foothold on different definitions of making a 108min movie. It thrives on a panoptic coverage than a layered approach. 

The auto driver from a technologically shy community takes hold of a Feature Film camera, misplaced by someone in his passengers. At first, the camera and the Protagonists make each other an alienist. This alienist notion starts spreading like a wildfire once the camera reaches the right tree - The Wedding Photographer of the Village. 

The Protagonist's love for staying back in the village and belief that Villages too will one day have development is unparalleled. So is his innocence. While both of them decide to make a movie out of a shoestring budget, the protagonist's motivation behind it feels far-fetched. Innocence is what makes him not worthy of risking as a filmmaker, while his desire to make a film and utilize that money to develop to his village makes him commit.

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Cinema Bandi is not about how personal yet collective the art of filmmaking one is. It does try to picture itself as one at a superficial level, except for the half-heartedly justified quote at the end saying “Everybody is a filmmaker…at Heart”. This movie is more about the exploration of the reaction to people towards an unforeseen process of filmmaking and the alienating camera itself. The movie is also about the Urbane-Rural divide and differences in lifestyle, excellently summed up in a line from the movie -

“City lo Unna Vallu mana Laga undali ankuntaru, Manamemo City ki vellaka Valla la undali anukuntam. Antha Akkade Padeypoyedi”.

When the Director (Autodriver) and the Cameraman (the Wedding Photographer) attempt to make a film by acknowledging each step in filmmaking, their plight never rises above the horizon to enlighten them and us as well, on filmmaking. For example, in the sequence where they start casting actors, they have a round-trip of the village and ask the suitable person to act. This sequence lights funnily but I chucked soon and next, I stopped laughing. For, this process starts cloning itself one after another. There’s no realization by the characters (in the movie we see and in the movie they make)  who can cover the entire wagon wheel of the village probable, that they are part in the making of something unique.

Also, the ruralites feel identical. The dialogues were written for the particular dialect always have the same sound for every character. Lack-lustre might be a conscious choice in the world-building, but problems arise when it creeps to the level of character writing - The characters are like the titular Titanic- Pose which the one-trick pony Wedding Photographer erects for every photoshoot. The fatigue reaches out to the performances. 

The film though is technically sensible. The Cinematography by Apporva Shaligram and Sagar Y. V. V. smartly splits between the guerilla, raw footage and scenic wides to contrast the confidence level of the characters. Music by Satyavolu Sirish and Varun Reddy feels apt and at times moving. 

Cinema Bandi in a nutshell is a Wagon driving between the Hamlet and Celluloid but has its motivations foot-boarding for a place. It’s a Slipshod duo of Village and Cinema.