A small film titled, Rebels of Thupakula Gudem starring Shrikant Rathod and Jaiyetri Makana as the lead pair under the direction of Jaideep Vishnu had a theatrical release today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: Set in the 2009 time period, to eradicate Naxalism from society, the central government brings a scheme. As a part of it, the government offers police jobs and a three lakh reward to the Naxalites who are ready to come back to the People’s lifestream. To cash in on the opportunity, a jobless youth named Kumar (Shrikant Rathod) from a small village named Thupakula Gudem brings a hundred members from the village to showcase them as Naxalites to the government and get a commission from the mediator. As an unexpected scenario, the central government cancels the scheme at the last minute. Later, how the lives of hundred members turn ups and down, forms the key aspect.
Performances: Newcomer Shrikant Rathod has a good screen presence. His acting and dialogue delivery is impressive. Camera fear is not seen in his face and portrayed in the given role confidently.
Jaiyetri Makana is cute on screen and gave a convincing performance in the purposeful role. Her on-screen chemistry with Shrikant is one of the major highlights of the film.
Praveen Kandela’s performance in the given key role adds realistic texture to the film. Other artists such as Shivaram, Kranthi, Sharath, Vamsi, Vineeth, Vijay, Varanasi Kishore, Gnaneshwar, Maggi, and Raja Shekar gave a good performance in their limited yet key roles.
Technicalities: Dialogues written by Santosh Murarikar are good. Especially, his revolutionary dialogues are added advantage for the film.
The photography work by Sreekanth Arpula is fine as he presented the village atmosphere nicely. He captured the forest locations in an effective manner. Edited by Jaideep Vishnu is okay but would have been even better.
Last but not least, the music composed by Mani Sharma elevates the mood of all the key scenes. Apart from giving a couple of pleasant songs, the ace musician’s background score works well throughout the film. The production values for this limited-budget movie are alright.
Analysis: Director Jaideep Vishnu’s basic storyline is good and has a scope to be narrated in an entertaining way by incorporating a heavy dose of comedy and emotional drama. Though the director presented the film on a decent note, he would have utilized the forest locations to generate a suspense-filled drama.
Though the idea of presenting the hardships of jobless youth in the Naxalism backdrop is good, the team would have worked more on executing the Naxalites issues in an even more realistic manner. To summarize, Rebels of Thupakula Gudem is a village drama that revolves around Naxalism. Despite having issues in the narrative, the film can be watched for sincere efforts from the team.
Verdict: Honest attempt!
Rating: 2.5/5
