(Contd from part 1)

Gandhi is the true representative of the frustrated youth in the country. He does not yearn for riches nor does he aspire to lavish lifestyles. Money, according to him, is only incidental - an off shoot of a job performed till the end of the day. He is on the distant periphery of the universe, centered around the concept of coppers, orbiting in his own path, unfazed and unaffected by motivations and machinations to earn MORE money....until....he is drawn into the vortex of a financial maelstrom, battling for the two most important things that affects every man (male, to be precise) at a very personal level - ego and respect from whom he values most (more specially from his lady(ies) love).

"Dabbu to the power of Dabbu" (adapted to the silver screen as 'Challenge') is a man's journey to the core of capitalistic bedrock, that governs today's civilizations, where the fine lines betweens law and justice (chaTTam-nyaayam), ethics and morals (dharmam-neeti) practicality and morality, are all smudged and smeared, where a man's worth is measured by how much his net worth is. The bad guy buys out (and takes over) a fledgling company and crushes it to eliminate competition. The bad guy makes deals with the heads of the labor unions (by buying them out) and nips the rising resentment among the working class, in the bud. The bad guy does not have sentiments, he does not mind flouting a few rules, bending them to suit his needs, stepping on a few them, while being careful enough not to get caught. He is a typical bad guy that one comes across in every day corporate world.... Now substitute the word bad with good in the statements above. Yandamuri picks up the Darwinian philosophy of "survival of the fittest" clubs it with the "struggle for existence", applies it to the cut-throat world of competitive business, and stands back, watching Gandhi rise up the ladder in the corporate world while tumbling down, two steps at a time, in the compassionate world. Yandamuri's affection towards Gandhi is similar to Oliver Stone's affinity towards Gordon Gecko (in the movie "Wall Street", where he proudly proclaims - "Greed, for a better lack of word, is GOOD). As the plot grows thicker, Gandhi does not apologize for his actions, even though he couldn't quite answer to his inner self; Gandhi does not care for sentiments, even though he is torn between the feelings that he develops towards the two important women that shape his career; Gandhi chokes the voice of his conscience, even though he clearly knows the difference good and bad and right and wrong - He starts to model his life around the fine print. This is the new Gandhi, the true representative of the frustrated youth in the country, the irony in his name notwithstanding.

K.S.Rama Rao's team (Satyamurthy, Illayaraja, Chiranjeevi, A.Kodanda Rami Reddy) were faced with the daunting task of adapting "Dabbu..." and make it palatable to the tastes of telugu audience, where the hero character is not exactly a role model waiting to be emulated and embraced with open arms, who does not mind trampling on people's feelings along his way to reach his destination. The team restricted the theme of the movie to a simple challenge between the hero and the villain, throwing in a triangle angle, and making it into regular pot-boiler with a little difference. As Chiranjeevi's stature grew, Yandmoori's hero suffered the consequences the most, in that, he is treated in a heavy handed way, mould to fit the image of to Chiranjeevi than it should be, the other way around.

If Gandhi occupies one end of the spectrum, here is Gopi on the opposite end - a poster-boy for value system, rules, ethics and good upbringing. Society, according to him, is built upon immutable laws, whose definitions are rigid and the many or so interpretations are invalid. He is a protector of the law and defender of its rules. Instead of questioning individual's ethics vis-a-vis adhering to the rules of society in advancing his causes, as it is the case in "Dabbu....", Yandamuri turns the tables around, and questions the responsibility of the society and the duty of the system inprotecting the rights and the privileges of its every day citizens in "Rakta Sindooram". He takes the same "struggle for existence" and "survival of the fittest" theories and applies it to the jungle law this time, after applying it to the concrete jungle in the former. Yandamuri calls into question the food chain, the way the living beings that occupy the same planet exert force and control on the ones, one level below in the hierarchy chart, and shows how the seemingly complex and rigid rules (thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal etc) that society is built upon, come apart in face of the Darwinian principles. The glaring contradiction between survival principles and prosperity principles (like, a business should always be conducted in a fair and proper manner (a survival principle), business would never grow and prosper if conducted thus (a prosperity principle), every person should occupy the same level if society needs to exist (a survival principle), The next person cannot climb the ladders in the society, if he cannot step over the shoulders of the next person (a prosperity principle) and the like) that tears the society apart is clearly reflected in the belief systems of the two protagonists of "Rakta Sindooram" - Gopi, a jail warden (a protector of the system) and "ganDra goDDali", a new prisoner to the same jail (a protector of the individuals' rights).

If "Dabbu.." revels in the capitalistic rituals, "Rakta Sindooram" presents a strong case for Socialism, with a hint of communism. Whether violence is the right tool to bring about a change in the society (a school of thought that many subscribe to, pointing out to the American, Russian and French revolutions), is besides the fact to the question - which "ism" is the right answer to the problems that plague the society? Yandamuri builds equally strong cases in both Gopi and "ganDra goDDali", but at the end of the day, when the system starts to bend the rules of the society to suit its own needs, when the system nurtures the depravity in the individuals and glorifies them as the growth instincts and prosperity prospects, when the system starts to hijack the principles of co-existence, Yandamuri leans towards the excision of the unruly elements, through sheer force, to restore the equilibrium and balance, as it is the case with mother nature.

This clash of systems and "isms" theme has been dealt earlier, but the disassociation of the subjects from their personal agendas (like a poor son trying to avenge his parents' death at the hands of the villain zamindar (though the underlying battle involve the "isms clash, the theme is lost in the personal causes), or a poor farmer (hero) revolting against the local land owner (villain) and the like), makes "Rakta Sindooram" a true ideological battle, and a pure clash of philosophies. Though fit into commercial mould, "Rakta Sindooram" was the last Chiranjeevi - A. Kodanda Rami Reddy - Yandamoori movie, that remained somewhat faithful to the original..

(Cont'd in part III)

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