This blog contains my afterthoughts on the movie Rangasthalam in a conversation format - loosely inspired by the real ones I had with two special women in my life, who were readily willing to share my discoveries and tolerate my spoilers.
That being said, this write up contains not just spoilers but my very detailed interpretation of what I saw on the screen. Fair warning -if you wish to see the movie and do not want it spoiled for you or do not wish to see it like I did :-)
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"So what's the movie about?"
"They said it was about politics. But I thought it was about handicaps"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes - The movie features some handicapped people and a deaf man"
"What?"
"Yeah - this man is deaf. And he has a huge block to accept that he cannot hear. He tries to work around it and somehow covers it up with his other virtues"
"Like?"
"He develops this ability to 'see' sounds"
"Like with his eyes?"
"Primarily with his eyes - majorly with his heart. That's how he discovers the handicaps around him. People with restricted abilities due to their lacks"
"What lacks?"
"The lacks that overbear physical limitations"
"Oh!"
"So this guy is in constant search of a black cobra that bites him. but somehow finds serendipity every time he looks for it. Once he finds a gaudy stainless steel watch that he takes it to his friend. She puts it on his wrist and it becomes a part of him"
"She? - you mean friends with benefits?"
"LOL - that's what the whole village thinks. But they are friends with benefits beyond what occurs to small, locked minds"
"Like?"
"Friends with benefits to each other's souls. They trust each other blindly and help each other cope with the voids in their lives. Like she becomes his ears and he becomes her shoulder to cry upon.
"Why does she have to cry"
"She buries a secret to safeguard her honor in a a man's world. But this deaf man never poses a threat to her so she reveals it to him finally as a last resort to save him. By the way, this man finds a pretty young lady while looking for the cobra. She doesn't fall for him right away. She even questions him about his 'connection' with his lady friend like the rest of the villagers do. He doesn't care to explain it to her, in spite of being smitten hopelessly. Eventually she gets him like soulmates are supposed to get each other. Without the need for explanation. She accepts him with his inability to hear upon developing the same ability as him, to hear beyond the obvious"
"So he gets the girl?"
"No he doesn't. He renounces her and picks his brother's goals over his own happiness and the girl and tells it to her in that many words and the smart woman that she is, with her new found ability, she rises over her limitations and goes to him"
"So he does get the girl then"
"Nope, The girl gets him. I see him as a bigger catch"
"So what about the brother?"
"He is well read. Wise. He falls in love with this beautiful young woman and ever so often sneaks out to meet her. Wears his heart on his sleeve and vows to save the villagers from the clutches of the power hungry president.
"Oh, President?"
"Yes, the figurative black cobra that the deaf guy searches for. This is handicap #1 of the movie. He is both blind and deaf - beyond his lust for power and money and spares neither lives nor expense to achieve them"
"What happens to the president? "
"Whatever is supposed to happen to bad guys happens to him. But not until much damage is done. But the deaf guy - finds serendipity right? while searching for the cobra. He also finds the purpose of his life. To save the people around him"
"So there are more handicaps in the movie?"
"Yes - Handicap #2 seems to have risen over all limitations in his life. He supports the brother vehemently in his goals and isn't corrupt like the president. He has noble intentions to serve the people"
"So what is his handicap then?"
"His ego. His pride about his caste. He finds it repulsive to let a lower human touch his daughter. He puts it exactly that way. Even cruder actually. But in his handicap to rise beyond his 'noble' birth, he kills the future of his own child. He cares less about her happiness and more about what he perceives as his own honor.
"And...."
"He hopefully learns his lesson too. We don't know for sure"
"And what happens to the deaf guy?"
"He realizes the purpose of his creation"
"Which is..."
"Letting bystanders like me know that the biggest handicap us humans have is not physical. We see but we don't observe. We hear but we don't listen. We touch but we don't feel. Our sensory organs won't amount to much when we are trapped in the cocoons of our own selves and fail to look for what lies around us and what the universe collectively tries to tell us. Which is to rise above the handicap of selfishness and to have empathy"
"So it is a movie about empathy"
"Yes, The movie is about a Stage of sorts...bringing to life what Shakespeare paralleled eons ago. where we are all players and are out of control on most counts - we can reign only over our own hearts, thoughts and ego and how we choose to perceive what is unfolding before us"
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Foot note - This is a bird view of my perspective of the movie. The more I comb through the depths of the script, the more I discover - all of which, cannot fit into a blog entry :-)
Serendipity ;)
Picture courtesy - Chittibabu from Rangasthalam - Lifted off of Director B Sukumar's FB page :)
