Sri Rama Rajyam

It is an open secret that Sri Rama Rajyam is a remake of legendary film Lava Kusa. No comparisons please.

Why to watch the film?

We are now at a phase when we hardly see any stories that relate to Hindu epics. People of the new generation hate to watch anything that is branded old, even if it is good. So Sri Rama Rajyam is refresher for a welcome change from stinking love stories, obscene songs and vulgar literature. If you have kids and you are either too busy or too lazy to read them stories from Ramayana, go watch this. If you are a Balakrishna fan, you may be disappointed as there is neither fight nor powerful dialogue, but because you are fan go watch this movie. If you have respect for the person named Bapu, for all his work in movies and art, you will watch this. If you have ever heard of another legendary writer named Mullapudi Venkataramana, you must watch this movie as this is his last contribution.

Comparison becomes inevitable:

No matter how much you try to eliminate any comparison between Lava Kusa and Sri Rama Rajyam, comparison becomes inevitable. There is an ocean of difference between the two movies that have been based on Uttara Ramayana. Titles is one area where probably Sri Rama Rajyam scores high, as the titles are neatly presented along side the art work of Bapu depicting entire Ramayana.

Acting:
NTR is a legend in himself and when it comes to enacting roles of Rama or Krishna, there is not a single person in the industry who can match him. It is fact that lot of people in Andhra Pradesh still can think of only NTR’s image when they think Lord Krishna. Balakrishna is no way near his father in the film. But if we compare apples to apples and not traverse across generations, we must give him due credit that there is no one else in the contemporaries who can enact Rama better than he did. He looked little old, which could have gone okay given the context of movie but one place the look became too awkward is scene o Sita Swayamvara where Rama is supposed to be 16 year old but looked like 60. Another side effect that is hard to ignore is while Rama looked to be aging, Sita looked young.

Anjali Devi’s enact of Sita in Lavakusa would make even stones weep for the pathos Sita is going through. Nayanatara did okay but is no where near.

Nageswara Rao may be a legend in his own right, how ever his enactment of Valmiki was again when compared to Nagayya’s divine pleasant enactment, does not find its merit. It could be because of extension of the character to give him importance spoiled merits of it.

Kantha Rao was time and again doubted for his acting capabilities but no one had any doubt on his award winning performance as Lakhmana in Lava Kusa was his peak and silences all doubt. Srikanth put all his effort but at times when the expression of pathos had to be prolonged to a duration, he could not contain it well. (esp in scene where Sita is left in forest)

Lava Kusa’s in old film were peerless and looked good as twins. In the latest version the kids did okay in the end but they did not look like twins and failed miserably when doing scenes of singing Ramayana.

Hanuma in old movies when ever required and where ever required was almost universally enacted by Arja Janardhana Rao. He looked as if he was born to do the role and probably because of the practice he looked convincing every time he came up on screen.

Music:

Ilayaraja may be a legend when it comes to melodies and has ruled the industry for decades. But in the current context we are comparing the songs composed by Ghantasala and they are peerless. There is a small anecdote worth mentioning here. During Lava Kusa time they approached Pendyala who was top music director at that time and because of his schedule and cost, they had to settle or Ghantasala. When the movie released, pendyala called up Ghantasala just to say that if he had got the movie he would not have composed such wonderful songs for the movie as Ghatasala did. Even today we remember Vinudu Vinudu Ramayana gadha song of Ramayana sang by Lava Kusas’. I did take the small song when Sita travels to forest very well as it looked more like tragedy song in modern love movie.

Taking:

I will try to write it short here because I wont be able to criticize Bapu- Ramana’s for the respect I have on the duo. I have seen their Sita Kalyanam may be a dozen times and Sampoorna Ramayanam another dozen times. Sri Rama Rajyam I am sure I will not manage to see dozen times.

Ramana Garu:

It hurts a lot to movie connoisseurs that Sri Rama Rajyam is his last work. He is person who has in depth knowledge of Ramayana. He has tried his best to embed knowledge of Ramayana in this film as well as other he worked. Inculcating a song on valmiki pariprasna to Narada Maharshi (Konvasmin Sampradam Loke.Sloka) as a song, Ramo Vigrahavan Dharmaha sloka in the screen play are few examples. He is the main reason behind my seeing the film,

Overall needless to say Lava Kusa scores over Sri Rama Rajyam