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Review: Manasanamaha

UniversalCinema Magazine
By UniversalCinema Magazine
37
Manasanamaha

Deepak Reddy’s short film Manasanamaha (2020) is a well calculated Telugu rom-com that sits well with modern day audiences of social media instagram stories and tiktok posts. The 16 minute film and its beautifully coloured frames bring to life the tale of a young man Surya and his ups and downs throughout three relationships. The film has received 118 awards worldwide and has been nominated 21 times in various international film festivals throughout the world. The short film released by Kala Media’s youtube channel is a pilot project produced by Shilpa Gajjala.

At an age of gender neutrality and progressive relationship dynamics, some may be quick to point out Manasanamaha black and white re-iterations of traditional relationship stereotypes. As depicted from the start of the film, women seem to have a difficult time making up their mind over little things as they never seem satisfied, they appear to be more demanding than living freely, and perhaps most importantly, they seem to forget how to have fun because they are too busy being controlling, indecisive, and morose. Of course, Surya on the opposite side of the spectrum is depicted as a fun, loving, outgoing, kind, and a compromising character who suffers from the shortcomings of his partners laced with a bit of bad luck throughout the film. Though at times all these may ring true on the surface level, it is ultimately up to us as audiences to read between the lines and take what Surya has to offer us with a grain of salt as the ending of the film tells us that we have yet to witness these relationships from the womens’ perspectives. And if we were to pay fine attention, it is not hard to spot Surya’s selfishness, deceitfulness, and carelessness towards his partners throughout the film.

Manasanamaha

The casting of Viraj Ashwin was a stellar choice on the director’s part in portraying the protagonist. Surya, in Sanskrit meaning the Sun, is loveable and cheeky, appearing as a hopeless romantic with a poetic heart full of wisdom who stands defeated in the face of his past three lovers, aptly named after the three season: Seeta (Winter), Varsha (Monsoon), and Chaitra (spring). Obviously the blatant metaphor here is that these three seasons bring darkness to that which holds the light. Ashwin does a wonderful job of balancing wit, rhythm, and physicality in the amalgamation of his voice over performance and on-screen live action scenes without dialogue. He seems in control and confident throughout, and it becomes hard to not be on his side even though we suspect his self-bias a bit overbearing at times. Overbearing as it may be, this has no negative impact on the film as quirky and whimsical poetic one-liners belonging to cliché romantic heroes makes the bias forgivable by way of wit. The women in the film are also fitfully cast, with Drishkika Chander as Chaitra playing the most prominent role as ‘spring’ and portraying the role as capable as the script demands of her. SriValli Raghavender (Varsha) and Prithvi Sharma (Seeta) also do a wonderful job to fit into the stereotype that Surya is depicting and it is fascinating to see how these three actresses will perform once the tables are turned, where they’ll have more dialogue for when their own perspectives are shown.

Manasanamaha benefits from technical prowess that stems from the meticulous work of cinematographer Edurolu Raju’s wonderful work. The subplots are mostly revealed to us in reverse, with beautiful transitions and animations that add to the film’s entertainment value from one frame onto the next. The editing here, by Deepak Reddy and Harikanth Gunamagari, leaves no room for questioning as it promises a seamless, colourful, and transient story to unfold in front of our eyes. The 2D animations work well to compliment the film’s message of “what we think relationships are vs. What they really are”. Manasanamaha won for best editing in the Canadian Cinematography Awards and the Los Angeles Cinematography Awards to name a few. The music is scored by Kamran, and fits the bill with romantic tunes that help the visual narrative reveal the emotional nuances within the relationships.

 

By: Darida Rose

Manasanamaha

 

© 2020. UniversalCinema Mag.

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