Cast: Suma Kanakala and others
Director: Vijay Kumar Kalivarapu
Rating: 2/5
The one noticeable merit of ‘Jayamma Panchayathi’ is that the central conflict plot point is unique. This uniqueness helps the writing department conceive scenes without falling back on the stock situations that rural dramas are notorious for. This is not to say that the film under review is engrossing. Far from it. The film achieves the distinction of being meandering and banal despite its amusing premise.
Jayamma (Suma Kanakala) and her family of three lead a fairly smooth life in a hamlet in Srikakulam. When her husband (Devi Prasad) is diagnosed with a chronic cardiac issue, Jayamma has to move heaven and earth to mobilize lakhs of rupees for the surgery. Around the same time, her daughter de ella attains puberty and Jayamma sees a God-sent opportunity. She calls for a pompous half-saree function in the hope that hundreds of guests give her cash gifts enough to fund her husband’s surgery. Her calculations from her fall flat when the guests she blindly counts on disappointing her with paltry gifts.
Granted that this film is better than the simplistic village-based films made in Tollywood. The characters have unpredictable ways, they have best-kept secrets, and there is a decent love track between debutant Dinesh Kumar and a government-job aspirant played by Shalini Kondepudi. The villagers are saddled with a host of problems and fears. But the central plot is an unending, one-dimensional mess. This particular demerit vastly undoes the film’s creative capital.
There is fun in the way Jayamma makes her relationship with everyone in the village purely transactional. She is unapologetic. But this idiosyncrasy soon gives way to one-note drama. Suma’s immense talent can’t lift the proceedings when the writing doesn’t soar.
A multitude of characters manage to impress to a small extent, and that is only and only because of their unassuming performances. The villagers are captured giggling; they are thoroughly entertained when Jayamma holds the village council to ransom.
Jayamma doesn’t over-dramatize her ordeal. At the same time, she does not look shaken by the health crisis that has hit her husband, threatening her financial stability. Her unsentimental language and her penchant for picking quarrels with all and sundry make her a flawed character. In all this, the film forgets to make Jayamma emotionally delightful. What does she think when she is alone? Why is she not agonized over the influx that has faded over the years? Would it not have humanized her character de ella had she expressed embarrassment at what she is reduced to do by circumstances?
The voluminous dialogues take the form of duels in the council. After a point, they stop offering anything new. The track involving Maoists feels forced. The sluggish pace tears the film apart in the second half.
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