By Vinay Kumar
Sarrainodu (The Right Guy) is director Boyapati Srinu’s sixth Telugu film and his first with actor Allu Arjun. Boyapati has made six Telugu films so far and all of them have been a hit or ‘block buster’ and in happy reference to this success is this film’s item song ‘Blockbuster’.
Bechdel-Gaaru
This film would have passed the Bechdel test if there was at least one more strong female character, and this is the same with all Boyapati films. He seems to be exhausted at the end of writing and directing one strong female character.
In Sarrainodu, Hansitha Reddy (Catherine Tresa) is an MLA surrounded by men and at no point is she scared, in need of help or saving. In one scene she cries over losing a rape case at the court that she’d promise to win for the parents of the victim. The hero Gana (a socially conscious, vigilante justice-loving son of the Chief Secretary of State played by Allu Arjun) looks at her and walks away. He lets her deal with it instead of the mandatory scene of the hero singing/trying to cheer up the heroine/saving the day.
In another scene, Hansitha is at Gana’s house to meet the parents and the grandmother says this marriage would happen only with her blessing and starts to grill her. Hansitha walks out to answer an important call. After speaking in a very rowdy accent to threaten some bar owner, she walks back in with her saree pallu draped gracefully around her shoulders. The grandmother freaks out and the rest of the family is impressed. Later, when she ends things with Gana she is the one who says “if you ever need anything remember I’m here for you.”.
But all the effort in making Hansitha a kick-ass heroine is set up against Mahalakshmi (Rakul Preet Singh) whose job is to look pretty, cry, laugh, sing or dance on cue. She’s the opposite of Hansitha and that is why she’s supposed to be better for Gana and therefore ends up with him. Her entry is at a point where Hansitha has finally persuaded Gana that for them to be together he needs to swear in front of the gods that he wouldn’t go around getting in fights anymore. Hello, Mahalakshmi who is starving, tearful and needs to be saved from villains. Goodbye, Hansitha.
Vaanti-gaaru
The most vaanti moment was when Gana imagines his future with Hansitha — he’s badly dressed, unattractive, holding an umbrella over Hansitha’s head and carrying their ‘son’ in his arms while she discusses politics with other men from her party.
Songs
The song “You are my MLA.” Where should we start? First, it is a mediocre attempt at replicating other hit songs of Allu Arjun where he’s trying to woo the girl by teasing, annoying and flirting.
Now, we are not saying that every song has to be a ‘Jejamma’ from Arundhati. But what to do with a song that goes
M ante my (my my my)
L ante lovely (lovely lovely lovely)
A ante angel (angel angel angel)
You are my MLA
You are my MLA
You are my MLA
My lovely angel
My lucky apple
The song also compares her to the goddess Gandimaisamma, a fearsome goddess who kills men. “Kill me if you want, stab me if you want to, but love me.” He goes on in this way with this BDSM wish list and forgets about her, focusing only on what he wants her to do to him and then love him. Oh MLA, My MLA.
There isn’t much else happening in the song except Gana reducing her to his personal angel or his lucky apple, whatever the hell that means.
Tollywood is really into the party song right now. The party song track from this film is called “Private Party” and its chorus is “this is a private party”. The sound tracks in the movie are better forgotten except for the background track for the fight sequence.
Casual sexism and oh-so-casual casteism:
Gana has an older brother whose wife is from Tamil Nadu and loves sambhar, she’s described as someone who believes cancer can be cured by sambhar. Her conversation with Mahalakshmi about sambhar would have passed the Bechdel test if they’d remembered to give her a name that wasn’t Sambhar or Tamizh Selvi or Daughter of Tamil Nadu.
Gana first sees Hansitha when she is bent over sweeping the street. So does Gana’s uncle Sripathi. Later he is alarmed that Gana fancies Hansitha and worries that her grandmother will disapprove. This alarm only passes when he realises she had been sweeping the street to bring the plight of sanitation workers to the government’s attention. Phew! Imagine if the precious nephew had strayed outside the caste.
Time to sing, “You Are My MLA”