C/o Kancharapalem movie review: Rana Daggubati’s production has love in all shades, at all ages

C/o Kancharapalem
Director and writer:Maha Venkatesh
Cast: Nithya Sree, Kesava K, Radha Bessey, Praveena Paruchuri, Subba Rao
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Love, in its purest form, is a feeling devoid of prejudice, bias, entitlement and expectation. That is perhaps the reason why its various shades are explored so much in cinema, literature and music. Rana Daggubati’s production C/o Kancharapalem is a beautiful, abstract piece that emphasizes love is love. From how there is no boundaries to how much you can love someone, falling in love with someone who is your exact opposite and experiencing the emotion for first time, there is so much in C/o Kancharapalem that would elicit a smile from the audience.

The best part about the film is how devoid of prejudice each of these relationships are. All the conflict comes from outside of the relationship. For instance, there is a beauty to how two people in their forties discover love. Age, however, does not stop them from experiencing the excitement of asking someone out for the first time or the apprehension about the answer and that helps the audience connect with the characters in the film.

How long has it been since we have had a ‘puff, dilpasand and cool drink’ kind of a party? The song books that Sundaram gifts Sunitha is pure nostalgia for the 90s kids who learnt lyrics from similar books.

The more intense the love story, the more hurtful the heartbreak and yet there is a beauty in this pain. There is also evolution in such pain. While the characters are simplistic, their feelings are not. There is a complex core to every character we meet in the film - Sundaram, Joseph, Gaddam and finally Raju show us that love at any age comes without any strings attached, but leaves behind a huge crack. This crack can never fully heal, but as time passes, it turns into a bittersweet memory that we look back at with wonder. Did we really go through so much in the name of love? What is it about this emotion that makes us humans forget ourselves? While the film can’t answer that, director Maha offers few fleeting moments from the life of a man who loses himself in love.

The most moving moments in the film truly belong to Gaddam and Saleema. One is when Gaddam hears that his sex worker girlfriend’s mother died of AIDS and hands her packs of condoms moments later; a complex gesture that symbolises caring. When Gaddam comes over to Saleema’s house to have a drink with her and she finally falls in love with him will touch your heart.

While there were some moments that looked forced, the film made up for it. C/o Kancharapalem is made up of slow and passionate love stories all stitched together with a twist that is unexpected. It makes you gasp and smile at how beautiful the connect between each character is, quite similar to Khaled Hosseini’s And Then the Mountains Echoed.

Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC
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First Published: Sep 07, 2018 20:13 IST