Fidaa: Many shades of romance
Director Sekhar Kammula, who brought in a breezy element to Telugu films, promises a delightful love story with actors Vikram Tej and Sai Pallavi,
If there is one name in Telugu cinema that has stood for new generation sensibilities that would be of director Sekhar Kammula. Always daring to go by his directorial vision, hardly making compromises, he brought in the element of breeziness to Telugu films, without resorting to clichés and formula.
If Happy Days, which continues to inspire newgen filmmakers in Tamil and Malayalam, much like Dil Chahta Hai, is proof of his craft, his subsequent films have fanned out into different genres and did not always work at the box office. With Fidaa, produced by Dil Raju, audiences expect Sekhar’s return to the breezy world of romance in his own inimitable fashion. He refers to Fidaa as his own Baahubali for the effort he put into writing, rewriting and changing the story of a NRI boy in love with a Telangana girl. At first glance, there appears tobe little novelty in the tale, which is why Sekhar says that ‘writing love stories is never easy.’
With only so many plot points and character sketches attempted in mainstream cinema, the success of romantic movies would rest squarely on the cast and the director’s approach. Sekhar does have a casting coup in Fidaa, roping in Sai Pallavi and Varun Tej. The film’s teasers and Sai Pallavi’s dubbing for her character, posted on YouTube went viral, while the film’s songs have received mass and critical acclaim, putting the spotlight also on the composer Shakthikanth Karthick. Sekhar gave him total freedom, which has translated to some feelgood and quirky songs that resonate with the listeners.
The pre-publicity of Fidaa has been phenomenal with Sai Pallavi marking her debut in Telugu. Having won legions of young fans across south India with her fantastic performance in the Malayalam film Premam, she had been extremely choosy about her films. Having reportedly even turning down a Mani Ratnam film, Sai Pallavi has only acted in one other film – that too in Malayalam, with Dulquer Salman in Kali. Fidaa is therefore also set to appeal to her fans in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The film’s producer Dil Raju, who is known to be meticulous about his productions, had given a free hand to Sekhar, and describes Fidaa as a ‘100 percent Sekhar Kammula film.’ But if reports are to be believed, he however intervened in the final stages and requested a cut of about 25 minutes. His producer instincts cannot go all that wrong; long films tend to tire audiences, and even Baahubali wasn’t spared by many critics for its duration.