Balagam Movie Review- Telugu (2023)

 Movie: Balagam (2023)

Director: Venu Yeldandi

Production: Harshith Reddy & Hanshitha Reddy

Cast: Priyadarshi, Kavya, Sudhakar & Others

Music: Bheems Ceciroleo

Editor: Himaj Reddy

Cinematography: Acharya Venu

Release Date: 3/03/2023

Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime

4/5

'Heart Warming'

01. Balagam in & out.

Balagam directed by the comedian actor "Venu" went viral & also is an absolute clean 'Family drama' with dash of typical nativity. Balagam is one such film that will leave you teary eyed towards the end & makes us all realise the importance of family relations & bondings in a subtle manner. All credit goes to the captain of the ship - "Venu" for incarnating such generous family story into a watchable screen play. It's a family drama but never the emotions in the film appeared forced nor melodramatic or not at all boring. 

Balagam is about a 'JOURNEY'- the journey of a family tree whose topmost branch dies & the drama that unwinds within the family. Sudhakar Reddy as Komuraiah (the aged grandfather) is the eldest in his family & lives an absolute wonderful happy go village life with his sons & grandchildren. But, one day he dies unfortunately due to age related ailments & then the things go miserable. Each story of his sons, grandchildren & daughter unfolds one by one & takes us through the entire drama. 

This is not a movie whose' plot can be explained in words, it should be experienced that's all. Go watch the film to familarize with the characters of the film & their encounters.

02. Why is Balagam special & how is it different from other films?

Balagam has no plot & screenplay in specific, it is like a play- it just goes on & you should get into the train to experience the journey. Venu neatly designs the plot of the film in such a way that one does'nt get deviated or bored with the typicality in showing such a story on the screen. Tell me who likes to watch an entire film where someone dies & everything in the film is just about the death & the sequences that unfurl after death, but this film though continously talks about death & shows the characters following certain superstitions according to Hindu customs & still manages to win the audience mind. 

Balagam is lot of nativity. It shows the culture of Telangana region people & their customs. It is almost like a documentary that is portraying the civilization of Telangana. How nice it is to have films made in such genres! Kudos to the team. It is different from other films coz, it does'nt follow any sequential order or the routine take by take - frame to frame 'Typical Cinema' formula for it's screenplay. As I already told, it is just a play & youre' watching it an art theater with enthusiasm & still it wins. 

03. Technicalities.

Music was damn good. Bheems just rocked, the songs sounded great, infact elevated the space in the film. The 'Harikatha' too was excellent. Editing has got no issues as it is a play kind genre, & editor has got no much work here. Other technical departments too did'nt have much work, as it is a simple story. 

04. Theme of Balagam.

Balagam focuses on the basic human relations & asks us to root us to our families & tells us to respect their existence as every families' moto is to lead a happy & successful life irrespective of the issues or problems that it has from inside. Every family has the eldest person whose happiness is to watch his family tree grow prosperously with lot of good values & ethics, same is the story of Komurraiah in this film- he longs to see his family root to bondings, values, ethics even after he dies & in course of time teaches the audience a wonderful lesson too.

Though the storyline is a direct inspiration from the recent bollywood film - GOODBYE, I cannot agree on the word Plagiarism, because this film is unique in terms of taking & also dealing with the flow of the screenplay too. 

The film explores the village nativity, human realtions, natural performances & lot of gratifying scenes. At least once, every audience would be in tears, let it be any juncture, but the emotion is same. We might be reminded of similar situations in our lives too, so indeed there is a lot of reality in the film that evokes emotions. 

05. Performances from the leads.

Though Priyadarshi & Kavya termed as leads, there is no special attraction only towards their roles, here the hero of the film is story. But, every character in the film is too real & natural such taht there is no need to point out their levels of performances or rate their skills at acting. Every character in the film has a role & specification which is rightly justified too. 

06. Final Verdict.

I though enjoyed the film, it was heart wrenching for me though. If you lost one your eldest persons in your life like grandfather or grandmother, this is going to be too touching & it's going to relate too you a lot. Kudos to the team for such a brave effort in bringing up these films in a period where love is touching & emotion is just lust & feeling together is getting physical, in such a context of timeline having this film here which lectures on emotions, human realtions & bondings & still wins is a point of proof that good films are always a welcome to the Telugu audience if it has enough stuff from inside. 

Go watch it atleast once to understand the meaning of life.