Balagam - Eating Crow

 

 

 

Balagam

Telengana, 2023

 

Director - Venu Yeldandi

 

Stars - Priyadarshi, Kavya Kalyan Ram, Sudhakar Reddy, Krishna Teja, Roopa Lakshmi

 

Mohan's Measure - ⭐⭐

Since the unprecedented success of Kantara, other movie industries have experimented with low budget, local setting movies, which are touted for their examination of a culture.  With its recent fascination for turning Cyberbad into an amoral DFW, Tollywood has been struggling to join the low budget bandwagon, and this most recent attempt is proof positive.

Balagam is set in a small town dozens of miles from hedonistic Hyderabad, and is intended to show what the Director calls the "traditional" culture and values of Telengana.  I am finding this hard to believe, because surely there must be something more to Telengana traditions than death, bones, arguments and booze. At least I hope so.

Koumarayya is a good natured man who is loved by the entire community, but seems from the get-go to be somewhat despised by his own family.  A wish for death by one of them leads to his passing, leading to this family having to meet be in one place for several days - per Telengana tradition  - to conduct the last rights and 11th day ceremony.

Priyadarshi, in his usual portrayal of village youth, is looking for a fast buck, which he decides to get the easy way, by marrying rich.  But, the "plain jane" fiancee' is blamed as being the "bad luck" which caused the inevitable passing of an old man - per Telengana tradition. So, the marriage ends, and our poor hero is forced to chase after the richer estranged cousin, who is played by the once child star, Kavya.

Estrangement is the focus of all of this.  The rivalry between brothers, sisters, and spouses is set against the backdrop of why the old man hasn't returned in the form of a crow to partake of his offerings.  And what a pitr tarpanam it is, grain alcohol and goat meat, perhaps as nostalgic reminiscence by the Director about what he considers as the traditional foods of Telengana.  

Something is amiss in all this.  The crocodile tears of the family are repeated over and over, as too the arguments over things that aren't really ever explained; or perhaps they are, and my limited brain is unable to fathom it.  Also not understood is the heroine, who comes across more as a former Marine than a village belle.

But, whatever be the case, problems have to be resolved so crows can fly. It is Telengana traditiona, after all.