Eega - My buzz about the film

I have a very low opinion about the quality of contemporary Telugu cinema. Most of the films look the same anyway. My issue is never with the plotlines (how many different plotlines are patronised in India anyway), but with the treatment and the story-telling abilities. Telugu films usually cater to hero worship and filmmakers do not dare to think beyond the trappings of commercial cinema much. Sincere and genuine efforts, at creating good cinema, are very few and the frequency of such films are extremely low - perhaps once in 2-3 years. If there is anything good about telugu cinema, it is probably the comedy elements that are stitched into the film, irrespective of its relevance to the plot.The last telugu film that I genuinely liked was perhaps 'Prasthanam' - which portrays the power games played in rich families in politics. 'Vedam' was another sincere attempt. 'Maryada Ramanna' by S.S.Rajamouli also seemed like a dignified attempt at creating commercial entertainer.

When S.S.Rajamouli announced his next film as 'Eega', I thought it would trigger another new trend of movie-titles, replacing the existing trend of using negative words as movie titles. Film-makers must be superstitious at some level, else why would they name films as 'stupid', 'poramboku', 'kantri' etc., just because a certain 'Idiot' and 'Pokiri' were hits (no matter how rubbish these films are, in my opinion). I thought we will now have films such as "purugu", "saaleedu" etc.,. But subsequent media reports about Eega revealed that it is indeed about a house-fly. That got me curious. How can a current generation Telugu film-maker, who made usual junky films such as Vikramarkudu, Simhadri etc conceive a film around a house-fly?But as the buzz around the movie increased, I really wanted to watch it. I wanted to see if the movie is really worth the hype. In Andhra Pradesh, any film that is decently ok is praised to the skies. Given such benchmarks, I wanted to see if this one lives up to the praise it has been receiving from the audience.

The story is way too simple. 15 minutes into the film, the villain kills the hero for the girl he set his eyes on and the hero gets reborn as housefly. The house-fly is now out to take revenge on the villain. Dejavu? Back in 1970s, there was a Hindi film with similar concept - Two snakes are killed by a bunch of guys and one of the snakes gets reborn (i think) and takes revenge on them. The plot - ridiculous as it seems - however had an advantage. The protagonist was a snake - which can kill a human in seconds and human beings have a natural fear for snakes. But it is not the same case with a house-fly. A house-fly can irritate a human but it is usually difficult to kill a house-fly with bare hands. One can kill a mosquito easily but not a house-fly. It is this thread that becomes central to the overall story-telling in Eega.

Eega is not about the story, but about the story-telling. The film, with all the computer graphics, has brilliant execution overall. If Hollywood can make Spiderman and get away with it, eega surpasses it, in my opinion. Probably some of you might disagree with me, but I would stand by it. Spiderman has a source material - comics, that triggered the creative impulses of film-makers to translate the action on the celluloid. But Eega does not have any such references. Eega is born out of sheer observation in real life - that a fly can irritate a man to any length and the filmmaker has carefully constructed over 2 hour long screenplay using that single 'miniscule' idea. A screenplay that glues the audience to the seats, without boring them for a single minute. A screenplay that does not include any of these: larger-than-life introductions of hero (reflecting the sycophancy in the industry), mandatory vulgar song that is given the sophisticated phrase "item song", songs irrelevantly breaking out of no where once in 20 minutes, the crutches of a comedy track (no matter how good or bad) that has become mandatory in Telugu cinema, masala elements ie., double meaning dialogues and gravity-defying fight sequences. At a time when mass masala films are at peak (which means creativity is at absymally low levels) in telugu film industry, here is a film that avoids all the stereotypes and still offers what I would call as popcorn entertainment.

Performances-wise, Sudeep really stands out while Samantha has little to do anyway. Nani carries his role well in the short span he is given. It is natural for the audience to root for the fly but the director adds a masterstroke by depicting the helplessness of the antagonist brilliantly. The director does not blindly stick of "fly irritates the villain" idea by the book. Instead, he takes some creative freedom and explores how the fly can actually get to do things like lifting a pin. Usually, when Indian film-makers try to make something on the lines of Hollywood films, within the fantasy genre - what they miss is the believability quotient renedered to a fantasy premise. It might sound contradicting, but hollywood constructs its own realism even within the confines of fantasy genre. They employ a certain faithfulness to the premise and narrative, that is seldom seen in Indian superhero films. Rajamouli ensures that Eega is an exception. Though there are few flaws (cinematic liberties) employed for the sake of taking the narrative forward without taking more risk and more importantly for the sake of entertaining the audience of all IQ levels, it still does not massively obstruct the believability quotient much. And Rajamouli must be commended for that - for walking on that fine line between 'mass audience' and 'non-mass audience'. Another star performer of the film is M.M.Keeravani. For the 1st time ever, I was hugely impressed with his background score that aptly underscores the unfolding drama. He used the right sound textures in various scenes that lent them the desired mood. After watching the film, only one thought resonated in my mind - that i could actually see the commitment and sincerity of almost all the technicians in the film. It appears as if they all have genuinely tried to excel, commercial results not withstanding, and add their bit of 'best performance'.  Also, Eega is not just about technology alone. It is not plastic-art. Technology is just a tool, employed effectively to let the creativity of the director run riot, thus resulting in one of the brilliantly executed films in Telugu Film Industry.

If not Rajamouli, Eega is a film that could have germinated in the mind of only one film-maker (i can think of) - Singeetham Srinivasarao. This film is the kind of innovative popcorn entertainment that only Singeetham used to offer once upon a time. Rajamouli's execution is probably 'Singeetham version 2.0' and by saying so, I dont mean to discredit him but I am putting Rajamouli's vision (for Eega), on the same pedestal as Singeetham's Genius. Rajamouli did not just push the envelope with Eega. He literally re-invented the envelope for today's audience and then pushed it.. a lot. However, I would not call the film a 'classic' or 'masterpiece' - for people now use such words very loosely. But the film is certainly a very brave attempt, that should makes the current crop of film-makers to rethink, beyond the mass elements and explore such diverse themes that can finally make us compete with other interesting cinema happening in the country. Ideally, Eega is the film that should be called as 'mass entertainer', not Simhadris, Pokiris and Racchas.

Kudos to Rajamouli for proving that all it takes is a small idea, a vision and sincere passion towards creating a product that is a cut different from the rest. Thats something I rarely see in Telugu cinema but I am just glad that I got to see it in Eega, which, if not fully, but atleast partially restored some of my lost faith in Telugu cinema.