Gamanam review: A half-baked anthology that feels more like a dose of anasthesia

1.5/5

Story:

Gamanam is an anthology revolving around two destitute kids, an aspirant cricketer Ali, his lady love Zara and a partially deaf woman Kamala, who does a tailoring job for livelihood. While the two kids try hard to fulfil their smallest of desires day after day, Ali and Zara face several roadblocks in taking their relationships forward. Kamala is keen to see her husband return to India soon. On a day when Hyderabad is hit by severe floods, their lives too are set to take a drastic change. What's in store for them?

Review:

It's extremely ambitious for a first-time filmmaker to start his/her career with an anthology film. The biggest challenge with the format is the minimal time on hand to establish character arcs, conflicts, pin them together and give it a satisfactory resolution. Sujana Rao, with Gamanam, tries to tell a story of five characters across various age groups, who have a different set of issues to handle on a night heavy rains lash the city. She strives to use the crisis as a backdrop to put forward a subtle commentary on privilege, urbanisation, class and hope.

Though the filmmaker deserves praise for her intent, the unimaginative filmmaking and the dull writing never let the film reach the heights it aims to. None of the three subplots work and the director creates stock characters, backdrops that have no meat or perspective. The story of the two desititute kids trying to collect money to buy a cake is clearly inspired by Kaaka Muttai. The subplot of Ali, his zeal to make a career out of cricket and marry Zara, lacks conviction. In the case of Kamala, a deaf woman whose life revolves around her infant, the filmmaker struggles to give her arc a proper direction.

There are flashes of brilliance, interesting sequences in the journeys of the characters, but the film never uses them to good dramatic effect. The sequence where a poor kid works as a server in a birthday party of a child of his age, for instance, leaves a lump in your throat. The contrast between cricketers Ali and his counterpart Abdul, who need to bribe the selectors for a place in the team, is established well (Ali is determined but the latter is practical, gives up on his career and works as a cab driver to make a living). 

With Kamala, the director could've utilised her hearing disability better in the context of the plot - this aspect doesn't really further the plot the way you imagine it to. Even when she has to protect her child in a house filled with neck-deep water, there's hardly any element of tension. The director doesn't cash in on many poignant moments and traits of the characters. With the love story between Ali and Zara, the setting is too cliched and conservative for a film set in the recent decade. In most cases, the female characters are under the mercy of powerful, vile men. 

The film literally drowns in the second hour, where the characters are battling various internal/external demons. The sequence where Ali, who tries to save a set of school children stuck in a bus, has similarities with Vedam. The essence of the film is also compromised due to the hurried editing. Ilaiyaraaja's music score too can't salvage this outing and as a viewer, you only feel 'drained' by the entire experience. 

The performances are a disappointment too, this could be partly because of the half-baked characters. While the child artistes playing the slum kids do a decent job, the likes of Shiva Kandukuri, Priyanka Jawalkar and Shriya Saran don't do much to bring the characters to life. Sanjay Swaroop, Charu Haasan and Suhas don't get substantial screen-time to assert their worth. Bithiri Sathi's special appearance works to a certain extent. What was even Nithya Menen doing in the film?

Verdict:

Gamanam needed better writing, filmmaking to work as an anthology. The characters, the conflicts lack meat and the first-time filmmaker Sujana Rao fails to extract convincing performances from a potent cast. The film is one giant bore.