A FIGHT FOR LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND JUSTICE

He who allows oppression shares the crime is an old saying. Extrapolating the sentiment one can conclude ‘not fighting oppression too is the same as docilely allowing it’.

ಪಡುವಾರಹಳ್ಳಿ ಪಾಂಡವರು” (‘Paduvaarahalli Pandavaru, which means: ‘The Paduvaarahalli Pandavas’) is a 1978 Kannada film, which highlights the faults, failures and frustrations that emanate in a feudal society. The movie is an adaptation of the epic, Mahabharata, set in the social, political and economic mise-en-scène of a village. This drama was remade in Telugu (Manavoori Pandavulu) and Hindi (Hum Paanch).

Sangappa (Dheerendra Gopal) is a rich, feudal lord of Paduvaarahalli, who oppressively dominates the local community. He is surrounded by several henchmen― prominent among them is his scheming sidekick, ‘Connection’ Kalappa (Musuri Krishnamurthy).

The villagers grovel haplessly before lecherous Sangappa; they suffer untold misery at the hands of the vindictive, manipulative fella and his minions. Five residents of the village join hands to fight the tyranny and liberate the community from servility to and subjugation by Sangappa.

Directed by the legendary Puttanna Kanagal, this classic delves into the ill-effects of excessive concentration of power, wealth and privilege among the upper echelons of the social order. His screenplay has no blemish, as always. Genius Puttanna avoids shrill, spittle-inducing drivel in the exchanges; instead he weaves conflict subtly into his story-telling with some terrific dialogues in backwoods dialect.

Vijay Bhaskar’s music is AWESOME; the melodies are apt for the moods in the movie. Little wonder then that the film was a musical blockbuster. The cinematography is fine; editing could and should have been tighter.  

The acting of the ensemble cast― comprising of Ambareesh, Ramakrishna, Jai Jagadish, M Jayashree, Musuri Krishnamurthy, Dheerendra Gopal and others― has put in COMMENDABLE performances. Aarathi has a longish cameo.

I rate this social drama, a heady cocktail of artifice and intrigue: 8.0 on 10!

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