Why Rama Rama Re is arguably one of the most the best films of the Kannada Film Industry from the last decade?
Being a cinephile, I have always seen cinema as a medium that can connect with an individual's soul. On a personal note, I see the cinema as a mirror that society can look at on the larger screen. During the lockdown, I decided to watch Rama Rama Re, a Kannada movie that released way back in 2016. In this blog, I am going to tell you what makes this movie so special that it deserves your attention.
Storyline (Without Spoilers)
The story revolves around the lives of a retired executioner, a death row convict, lovers from the neighbouring villages, a soldier and his family. The supporting characters include the villagers and other characters who uplift the story. The journey of these characters through the arid areas of northern Karnataka. The genre of the movie is Road Genre. There are very few movies based on the Road Genre that have been made in the Kannada Film Industry.
I would not want to reveal the storyline to you as its an amazing journey between life and death that everyone must watch.
Script and Screenplay
In any movie or web series, screenplay and script play a vital role in making the audience to travel with the characters throughout the film and understand the director's creativity. The story has been written and directed by then debutant D Satya Prakash who previously directed the critically acclaimed short film “Jayanagar 4th Block”.
The Script of Rama Rama Re is well written with a lot of detailed research behind every frame. The best part of the script is that it touches various social elements like Death Penalty and Inter Caste Marriages with immense maturity and clarity. If you are really interested, you can as well read the script of the movie (the drive link of the screenplay PDF was released by the production company of the movie).
Before understanding the beauty of Rama Rama Re’s Screenplay, most of us would have heard about India’s greatest epics the Mahabharat and Ramayan. These epics are being all across the globe by celebrities, scientists, politicians and many more high profile people. These epics are considered to be a source of inspiration to individuals when they need to find the sole purpose of their lives.
The screenplay of Rama Rama Re was written by Dhananjay Ranjan, Nagendra H S and D Satya Prakash. They have taken the reference of India’s greatest epics Mahabharat and Ramayan to pen down the screenplay of this movie. The movie starts with the jailor watching the Sita’s Agnipariksha(ordeal of fire an ordeal of fire by which she proves her chastity before she is accepted by Rama) of the Ramayan on the TV and the death row convict escapes the prison. The audience may as well consider that the prison was more like the Agnipariksha for a prisoner before the individual enters into the society. While the unravels towards the climax, the retired executioner is in a dilemma to decide whether he has to execute the death row convict who has been good while travelling with everyone and a band of folk singers start singing the Bhagavat Geeta (A part of the epic Mahabharat where Lord Sri Krishna advises Arjuna to do his duty). On a similar note, the retired executioner decides to do his duty just like the way Arjuna decided to fight the Battle of Kurukshetra against his own relatives after listening to Lord Sri Krishna.
As a remark, after witnessing the screenplay of Rama Rama Re I would like to say,
” The Solution To Life’s Greatest Unsolved Problems Lies In The Mighty Epics Of Ramayan and Mahabharat”
Dialogues
No matter how good the screenplay and script, it's the dialogues that the audience remember for eternity. The dialogues of Rama Rama Re is quite hard-hitting and powerful. It's quite interesting to see the directors take on breaking the caste barriers displayed through the dialogues of the lead artists.
In the above set of frames the old lady after seeing the inter-caste lovers who have decided elope, talks about the backwardness of the caste barrier irrespective of our scientific and technological development.
Caste pride is nothing but sheer stupidity. Dharma(Dharmanna Kadur) talks boldly against the villagers who are ready to harm him as he fell in love with a woman of another village.
The character of the Soldier has some of the most interesting stance on Inter Caste Wars. When the other two villagers talk about killing the boy and sacrificing the girl, the soldier compares these inter-caste wars to be more severe than the ones that the soldiers face at the borders. The best part is the amicable solution that he proposed to sort the issue by uniting the lovers and ending the war.
Music
Music is always an integral part of Indian Movies. The music in Rama Rama Re was well suited to the script of the movie and gels well with each frame of the movie.
The lyrics for all the songs were penned down by the director himself. The original soundtrack and background score were composed by Nobin Paul & Songs Composed by Vasuki Vaibhav.
One of my favourite song from the movie is the title track. The title is played in parts where ever required and not as a whole, unlike the commercial movies where the title track is played at once.
One of my favourite lines from the title track talked about the lovers eloping and asking a road contract to be given to Laila Majnu to build the road for lovers
ಬ್ರಹ್ಮ ಕೋಟ್ಟ ಜೋಡಿ ಕಾಲು ಜೋಥೆ ಜೋಥೇಯಗಿ ಒಡಿರಲು
ಜೋಡಿ ಹಕ್ಕಿಯಾ ಹಿಡಿಯಾಲು ಕಟುಕರೆಲ್ಲರು ಸೆರಿಲು
ಬಡುಕಿಡು ಸತ್ತುರು ಸುದುಗದ ಮನಸೋರು
ಜಾಥಿಯಾ ಘೋರಿಲಿ ಪ್ರೀಥಿನಾ ಹೂಲೋರು
ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕ ರಸ್ತೆ ಮಾಡ್ರಪ್ಪ ಒಡಿ ಹೊಗೊರ್ಗೆ
ಕಾಂಟ್ರಾಕ್ಟು ಕೋಟ್ಬಿಡ್ರಪ್ಪ ಲೈಲಾ ಮಜ್ನುಗೆ
ಎಲು ಹೆಜ್ಜೇನಾ ಇಟ್ಕೊಂಡು ora ರಾ ದಾಟಾವ್ರೆ
ಎಲು ಬೀಲಲ್ಲು ಕೈಯೊಲೇಜ್ ಕೈಯ್ಯ ಜೋಡ್ಸಾವ್ರೆ
The Characters of Rama Rama Re
Ramana and Sandal Raja
Ramana(the retired executioner) played by K Jayaram was extremely flawless. I liked his performance when he was in dilemma to either save the death row convict or not. He gave an emotional edge to the story.
Sandal Raja(the Death Row Convict) played by Nataraj was a sheer display of method acting on the screen. His transformation into a death row convict is quite amazing. He portrayed the fear of being caught through his eyes and non-verbal cues effortless like a criminal who has escaped from jail.
Dharma and Subbi
In a road genre movie like Rama Rama Re, Dharma(Dharmanna Kadur) and Subbi(Bimbashri Ninasam) the lovers from the neighbouring villages who decide to elope give the story a comic relief with their witty and funny dialogues.
The Other Characters
The other characters in the movie are the soldier, his wife, his mother-in-law and the villagers who give the film a unique edge by their solid performances. Their performances was spellbinding with respect to the language, the verbal and non-verbal cues of the region where the film was being shot. Without these artists and their splendid performances, the movie would have lacked its authenticity.
Concluding Remark
As a concluding remark, from my side I would like to say,
The Cinematography and the locations can take the audience to the director's world. Editor has brought the frames together glittering like that of a pearl necklace with no mistakes in editing. On a very personal note, this movie is no less than a masterpiece made under a small budget with top-notch production value. I really loved the authenticity of the frames and the detailing. I would love to see many more filmmakers from the Kannada Film Industry to explore the Road Genre based films.
Where Can You Watch This Film?
The production company of the movie Rama Rama Re, Satya Pictures officially released the movie on their YouTube Page with English subtitles on 30th March, 2020. This movie has garnered over 1.7 million views on YouTube since its release.
