‘Gamanam’ movie review: Earnest and relevant, thought not masterly

Debut director Sujana Rao’s anthology of stories set against the Hyderabad deluge is earnest and has its moments

Remember the line ‘Water, water, everywhere, not a drop to drink’ from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’? When the city gets battered during monsoon and low-lying colonies are inundated each year, the line assumes more relevance. In a passing scene in debut writer-director Sujana Rao’s Telugu film Gamanam, an elderly lady in a slum questions why water channels are encroached upon and turned into high rises, allowing no room for rainwater to drain. Neither is it one of the best scenes in the film nor does the question come across as forceful, but the relevance is hard to miss.

Sujana Rao presents three stories that cut across age groups and social segments in Hyderabad and shows what the deluge can mean to different people. Water is the ever-present additional character. At first, we see women in a slum line up near a tanker to get their daily quota of water. Elsewhere, a young ragpicker chances upon a bottle of mineral water and treasures it. Later, the life-giving water threatens to consume a few characters, while it makes the others reassess their priorities and step out of their preconceived notions. Binding the stories deftly is Ilaiyaraaja’s background music, filling the scenes soulfully with joy, poignancy or indicating a looming threat, the way only he can. There are scenes where next to nothing is spoken; words become redundant when the music does the deed.

Kamala (Shriya Saran) is a hearing impaired mother of an infant in a slum, trying to make ends meet while waiting for her husband to return from Dubai. With an undercurrent of pathos, it is a story that can be used to emotionally manipulate viewers to pity the woman. However, the story progresses to show how Kamala draws on her innate strength to fight for survival. Shriya enacts Kamala with conviction, revelling in the opportunity to deliver a moving performance. The scene in which she reacts to the different sounds and later her child’s giggles can make your eyes well up and leave you with a smile.