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 Talk
to most filmmakers these days and they will tell you tall stories
about “the film with a difference” they are making. They
ar never attempting or trying to make a film with difference, they
are sure they are making the different film till it is completed,
released and judgement passed on it most indifferently by both critics
and the common cinegoer alike. If only every filmmaker knew what
he was making and told the truth about it...
A filmmaker
like the veteran all-rounder from the South, K. Raghavendra Rao,
B. S. c., once known as “the Manmohan Desai of the South”
who has only gone several steps ahead after the premature death
of “Man” with the magic touch from Mumbai. Rao who was
one of the most prolific makers from the South who made a spate
of Hindi remakes of some big hits in one of the four South Indian
languages which swayed Hindi films during the late seventies and
right through the eighties strikes back with Aamdani Athani Kharcha
Rupaiya has always been clear about his motto as a filmmaker. Says
Rao, a man of very few words who always wants his work to talk for
himself: “I always try to make films which appeal to the masses
but I also make it a point to see that I just don’t take people
for a ride in the name of entertainment. I am very happy if I am
able to say something that will appeal and touch the entire family
and I am grateful to God for blessing me with the ability to both
entertain and enlighten without giving sermons and lectures. I say
whatever little I want to through my story, characters, dialogues,
music and even dances. I believe that the audience always takes
a sugar-coated pill with great pleasure. My experience of more than
thirty years has added strength to my belief. I don’t claim
to make any film with the big difference but I try or make an attempt
to give my audience something different with every film and they
know it. That’s why they come to see my films with great expectations
and I never let them down”. Rao’s latest attempt in Hindi,
Aamdani Athani Kharcha Rupaiya is his way of making men and the
world in general aware of the changing face of the Indian women,
her growing power, her place, her position in every home, in society,
in our country and the entire world, a truth about life which has
been neglected for long but can not any longer. “My film is
about how women can change the world and make it a better place
if given their importance, the opportunities to face everyday challenges.
To a certain extent I say give the world to women for a change and
she will manage the world in much better way than the mess men have
made of the world during the last thousands of years. They have
I feel some hidden power which helps them emerge stronger than we
men at times. The woman of today is not the bending and bowing kind.
She is capable of standing up and fighting for a place of her own.
That’s my belief and I can say it will come true with time”.
 I
was at the now well known Ramoji Rao Film City where Rao and his
dance director B. H. Tharun Kumar were busy picturising a song and
dance with the entire cast of the film-Govinda and Juhi Chawla,
glowing after becoming a mother, who play modern day sutradhars
who throw light on the lives of three other couples, Chandrachur
Singh and Tabu, Vinay Anand and Isha Koppikar, Johnny Lever and
Ketaki Dave, once of Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi fame who is said to
have walked out of the ghar ghar main popular serial. The first
two lines of the song go tu chai hai, main pyali hoon, main rail
hoon tu patdi hai (translate it for your selves and feel enlightened).
There are literally hundreds of male and female dancers surrounding
them, singing and dancing with them, singing their own song, the
seriousness of which will be felt when it is seen in its entirety
in the film, a senior observer who has seen the original says.
Working with
Rao is the one experience every star from Govinda and Tabu, Vinay
and Isha talk in glowing terms, Tabu especially, who was first given
her major break in a Telugu film directed by Rao. She never stops
calling him a guru. Rao deserves that compliment and more. He is
a major force to reckon with Aamdani Athani... is his ninety-ninth
film as a director. What do you have to say to that? He will soon
direct his hundredth film which will include all the living stars,
old and new he has worked with down the years, which means the entire
clan of stars in various languages, virtually some of the biggest
names. He plans to use all the money to build a brand new school
with it. All his achievements have left him untouched. He still
looks, behaves and speaks like a missionary priest who has many
other missions to fulfil, many other messages to convey to his people.
The film is
produced by the House of Padmalayas, a prestigious banner founded
by the actor Krishna and taken care of by his brothers G. A. Seshagiri
Rao and the late G. Hanumantha Rao, the man who knew cinema on the
tip of his fingers, the unforgettable who I sorely missed on this
trip. The company last made Sooryavansham with Amitabh Bachchan
in a double role which surprisingly didn’t do as well as expected.
There are great expectations from Aamdani Athani... too. The entire
unit has. The audience too, with a Captain as experienced and enlightened
as Rao, B.Sc. and his team so charged by him it is only but natural.
Come November and are will be cleared. My good wishes are always
with men like Rao and his team who fight for a place for the women
in the sun for a change.
—ALI
PETER JOHN
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