I remember watching this movie in Tamil during my childhood in Door darshan.I knew that this movie was entertaining and always believed that this is a Tamil movie and had no other memories of this movie.Then I realized that this movie was actually shot in telugu and then reshot with different artists and released in tamil after few months.
My good friend Rahul Thylum kept recommending to see this movie once again. I was wondering what could be new as I watched it already and had no interest in watching Black and white movie and that too a movie that might have lot of songs.
It took me 4 years to realize the greatness of this movie till I watched this classic once again before few days. Fortunately I saw the colored digitally remastered version which is probably the first South Indian movie to be re-formatted to color
What is this movie about?
This movie is based on Sasirekha Parinayam episode in Mahabaratha.
Since this is a known tale for most of the audiences, let me give you some glimpses why this movie is considered as a greatest Indian cinema.
Direction:
Right from the first shot, attention to detail was focused by director. Very importantly he ensured that audience believed that the characters in this epic actually spoke Telugu. Every frame is a treat for audience
Kadri Venkata Reddy ensured that his focus is to re-tell the story and hence has probably taken highly risky approach of not giving central importance to any one character unlike traditional formats of movie making. I remember "The assasination of Jessy james by coward Robert Redford" had a similar approach in story telling although Jessy James screen space was more.
But not because of these he is considered to be greatest director, it is actually because of the blend of art, dialogues, entertainment along with some finest performances.
Performances:
NTR(One of the Finest method actors in Indian Cinema)
I was just attracted to this actor when I watched his performance in a tamil movie called Karnan(review is upcoming).
Indeed it was a bit dis-appointing to see him having less screen space in this movie, yet he proved that he is only Indian actor who can pull off role of Krishna with such a great expressions and dialogue delivery even within the less screen space.
Infact it is a directors honest approach towards story telling as a result of which we see Krishna for less time as story is given as primary importance which is filled by other characters gradually.
I am looking forward to see his other movies(Pathala Bairavi, Daana Veera Soora Karna, Jagadeka Veeruni Katha etc)
S.V.Rangarao:
He plays the massive Gatothkachan. He is probably the apt casting to play this role. Again a great performance.
Savithri:
Savithri is considered as a greatest actress in both Tamil and Telugu. Initially I thought she doesn't have any solid plot as she plays Sasirekha (centric character of this movie actually) as a love interest of Abhimanyu. I was wrong as she is the screen stealer of the movie from the plot where Katothkachan takes the form of Sasirekha(played by Savithri) where the real fun starts. This is where we see lots of combination scenes between characters(Sasirekha vs Abhimanyu, Sasirekha Vs Krishna, Sasirekha vs Saguni, Sasirekha vs Lakshmana Kumara)...In all this scenes Savithri is real screen stealer, may it be her screen presence, Dialogue delivery, expressions. All were amazing.
Mayabazaar belongs to all of these actors when it comes to on-screen. It is very rare to see the importance given to the dialogue delivery and acting in an epic movie like this. (Even in movies like Lord of Rings, we just remember the scenes, music, dialogues, but not the greatness of acting of lead actors)
Iconic song "Vivaaha Bojanambu" & pathos song "Nee Kosame Ne Jeevinchunadi" placed in the movie because of separation of Sasirekha and Abhimanyu are my favorites. BGM was amusing and no wonder Art Direction, Cinematography, Visual effects and especially the brilliance in remastering of both audio and Video are great.
I would write more on this movie after watching this once more.
Mayabazaar is celebration of art and epic in Telugu cinema!
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