Watching lesser known, meaningful or award winning movies in the film festivals organized by various authorities has been a part of my passionate love for cinema since decades. But what I experienced watching two Kannada films together in the National Film Festival 2015 held at Sri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi, was pleasantly the most satisfying as well as shocking experience till date, expressing it honestly.
Giving you a brief introduction of these gems, HARIVU (meaning The Flow) was the first film in the afternoon that began with some thoughtful sequences showcasing two fathers (one of them being a poor farmer) and their sons of different age groups in its initial sequences. But then, it ended leaving every single person sitting in the theatre with moist eyes and a crying heart that could be seen clearly as the lights came back. Admitting it frankly, I am still finding tough to pen down even a paragraph as HARIVU’s awaited review. Yet, would like to convey the power of this disturbing, cinematic classic in a line, that had the director Manso Re been there in the theater at the time of its screening, I would have certainly rushed to hug him, congratulating for making such an emotional masterpiece of our present times.
In honest words, it was not easy to recover from the upsetting impact of HARIVU in those few hours after its end credits stopped rolling. But since I didn’t wish to let go the opportunity of watching another award winning gem being played next, I entered the theater again to witness the second extraordinary effort made by the entire team with the title NANU AVANALLA AVALU (meaning I am not a He, but She).
Based on the real life account of an artist/activist (Living Smile Vidya) who himself decided to live as a woman instead of a man, the film is simply a stunner in terms of performances, execution and realistic depiction of the tough, neglected life of eunuchs. In short the moment, its lead performer gets introduced as an adult, he grabs your complete attention strongly and never lets you take eyes off the screen to say the least. And while walking out of the theater, I was simply forced to think, that how could he even do all that in front of the camera with so much ease, perfection and conviction. No doubt the man got the Best Actor National award of the year as an actor representing Kannada Cinema (after a long time) quite deservingly.
Now coming to the most astonishing part of the write-up, watching these two amazing cinematic gems in a day was certainly a highly satisfying experience for a mad movie-buff like myself. Plus it was great to know that both the Kannada films had won prestigious awards at the 62n National Film Awards with HARIVU fetching ‘The Best Kannada Film’ and NANU AVANALLA AVALU getting ‘The Best Make Up Artist’ and the reputed ‘Best Actor Award’ given to Sanchari Vijay for his eye-opening, unbelievable kind of performance as a transgender.
Still somehow the gifted actor of the second film was the only one playing with my mind while walking back to the metro station in late hours of the evening, when suddenly I got the insight or the realization which I hadn’t got in the entire day while watching both the film’s together.
And the insight was that it was the same actor, yes, it was the same actor playing the lead role in both the films HARIVU as well as NANU AVANALLA AVALU and I truly couldn’t get that. I simply couldn’t recognize that the sad, silent, traumatized farmer of HARIVU was the same person playing the unbelievably realistic transgender or the eunuch in NANU AVANALLA AVALU too so effortlessly.
In other words, the actor par excellence Sanchari Vijay, truly deceived me with his two different acts in entirely contrasting films seen one after another and that had never happened before in more than three decades of my movie watching experience, accepting the clear defeat.
Yes, the two films being from an unknown language, region and cast might be the reason for this rare instance of missing the connecting link. But in all honesty Sanchari Vijay genuinely became the winner here with his two out of the world, distinctive performances getting deep into the skin of his given characters as very few artists have proved to be capable of.
Hence the actor admittedly taught me a good lesson of cinema that day since I simply couldn’t catch that the eunuch performing those typical claps and smiles on the screen was the same farmer of HARIVU fighting with his ill fate.
And for this both Sanchari Vijay and his directors (Manso Re & B. S. Lingdevaru) rightly deserve a big, respectable salute from Bobbytalkscinema.com indeed.
Cheers!
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Never Before Cinematic Experience, Articles on Cinema by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com. HARIVU and NANU AVANALLA AVALU, Kannasa Award Winning Films, National Award Winning Kannada Regional films, Worth Watching Cinema, Must Watch Indian Regional Cinema.