A MYTHICAL TALE OF INTENSE DRAMA

As someone said, truths are best expressed in the form of myth. On the dot! Rectitude and righteousness too are best spread with mythology.

“ಮೂರೂವರೆ ವಜ್ರಗಳು” (‘Mooruvare Vajragalu’, which translates to: ‘Three & Half Diamonds’) is a 1973 Kannada mythological film based on events narrated in the purāṇas and other ancient literary works. Woven around characters in the epic Mahābhārata, the B&W movie is a masterpiece. It was a super-duper hit and garnered critical acclaim too.

The film unfolds with Sage Narada (Dr. Rajkumar) reassuring a poor, blind and orphaned Kritavarma (Srinath) about Sri Krishna’s (Dr. Rajkumar) benevolence towards those devoted to him. The noble sage narrates the exemplary story of Sudama (Gururajulu Naidu) to prove his point. Kritavarma marries Satyavati (Jayanthi), an ardent, devout worshipper of Sri Krishna, and regains his lost kingdom.

Many sub-plots, entailing conspiracies of pompous Duryodhana (Vajramuni); negligence of Kritavarma; ego of Balarama (Rajashankar); etc., are showcased in the engrossing narrative. Soon venerable Narada curses Satyavati, who morphs into a beautiful white horse. A battle royal then erupts over the horse’s ownership― the fallout of infectious masculinity and one-upmanship.

The sub-plots cascade and coalesce towards the climax at a frenetic pace. It finally emerges that the astute sage, Narada had presciently orchestrated events with some trickery and lots of sagacity…all for upholding dharma and fulfilling a promise made to Sri Krishna.

Director YR Swamy has taken copious cinematic liberty to present an intense story, which is redolent of the many such intricate tales of intrigue in our epics. He teases and taunts with high-voltage drama. However, he does not burden the multi-threaded narrative with either an overdose of songs or an overload of dance sequences.

Set to Chi. Sadashivaiah and Chi. Udaya Shankar’s lyrics, R Sudarshanam’s musical compositions are neat. Arun Kumar’s script is replete with imagination― he jazzes up conflict in dialogues. Chi. Udaya Shankar’s screenplay is sure to captivate you. Camerawork is simple and somewhat dated. Short on clinical editing, the film though is not as lean and light as it ought to have been.

Dr. Rajkumar holds sway over the movie with amazing acting prowess in his dual-role essay. The divine glint in his eye is surely mesmerizing. The rest of the cast comprising of stalwarts like Srinath, Ramesh, Vajramuni, Jayanthi, Manjula, KS Ashwath, Rajashankar, Thoogudeepa Srinivas, Aarathi and others has fared creditably too.

I rate this gem of a mythological drama: 8.5 on 10!


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