A woman warrior in a saree is a new and welcome concept. You don’t have to wear leather pants and bralette to be a superwoman.
Saree chalega… daudega. Anushka Shetty proves it in Krish Jagarlamudi’s Ghaati, a revenge saga with no twist. This is Khoon Bhari Maang territory. But a lot more violent. This is a film about a woman seething in anger.
The higher the ire, the more fuelled the fire. Although set in the cannabis (Ganja) producing region of Andhra, the film wears a striking utopian look exuding despair and anger. Manojh Reddy Katasani’s camera moves in mysterious ways, looking for pit stops in perishable places.
Standing tall in the midst of the manufactured cataclysm is Ms Shetty. She is resolute and unperturbable.
It is a pleasure beyond measure to see her negotiate the wide chasms that litter the plot. There are many plot points which could have easily been eliminated, thereby trimming down the size of the storytelling by at least thirty minutes. Editor Chanakya Reddy Toorupu should have been more active.
What holds your attention is Anushka Shetty’s Sheelavathi, a woman of steel, swathed in a sulk, dressed in silk. As a wounded woman who will avenge her beloved (Vikram Prabhu)’s death till her last breath even if it means her death, I love the cool quotient the leading lady brings to the action. She definitely proves herself the most talented Shetty in Indian cinema.
I especially liked her look of disgust when the main villain (Chaitanya Rao Madadi, creepy) reaches his hand out to pull her mangalsutra. Hatred is the byproduct here of the wrongs done to people who deserve better.
Also Read: Krish Jagarlamudi On Ghaati & Working With Anushka Shetty
The film should have actually begun with the crime and gone straight to the punishment. The whole “message” angle regarding the rehabilitation of cannabis farmers is a bit of a solemn stretch signifying no other social change except the box-ticking kind.
Besides Sheelavathi, the other interesting character is that of the cop chasing her, played by the ever-interesting Jagapathi Babu. I don’t know how much he has contributed to making the character so posh. But the way he bursts into songs (Sheila Ki Jawani, of course) and his insolent habit of digging into other people’s food while they are eating, makes this one of the most entertaining cops since Amjad Khan in Qurbani.
There is a gripping chase on a railway station between the cop and the fugitive couple Sheelavathi and Raja early in the film which made me wonder. There is an entire film waiting to be made based on Jagapathi Babu’s cop character.
From among the rest of the characters, some of them are dead before they come alive. Others outlive their utility. Which leaves you with the plot’s panned-out predictability. It is not in what Krish Jagarlamudi has to say, but in the way he says it that the film acquires its personality.
