An independent Telugu feature film, Vanaja was screened at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on Saturday. It was the only Telugu film which was screened in the ‘Open Doors’ section where other award winning films like Kanasemba Kudureyaneri, Shyam Benegal’s Manthan, Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Nizhalkkuthu and Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa were screened to an international audience.
Directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli, Vanaja is set in rural Andhra Pradesh in the 1960s. “The film explores the chasm that divides classes as a young girl struggles to come of age,” Rajnesh told IANS. Mamatha Bhukya played the lead role as Vanaja who joins a local landlady’s household to learn Kuchipudi; however her dreams are left unfulfilled after the arrival of landlady’s son who impregnates her. The film was first screened at Toranto Film Festival and then it won the Best Debut Film award at Berlin Film Festival in 2007.
When it released in US, the film impressed the top critics so much that Pulitzer Prize winning film critic, Roger Ebert named the film as one of the best films he had seen in that year. The film was also released in South Africa; however it hasn’t found any takers in Andhra Pradesh. Rajnesh Domlpalli is now planning to release the film soon in India too.
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