The handling of emotions by the director is very good. If one were to stop at paying just one compliment to the 2013 film, "Gundello Godaari", it would be that. But since it takes money, time, efforts apart from good intent to make a film while only a week's time exists to hear everything the world wants to say about it before the world moves on to the next weekend, one must not hold back when it comes to giving the full credit it deserves and in detail: They all complain about the escapist fantasies that Indian films are. But they do inspire a small section of the audience into aspiring for a better life and working towards it, Friday to Friday, if not Monday to Monday. And the same films are capable of inspiring the same audience even more deeply if they, the same films, decide to risk losing the mandatory sugariness in them and try telling stories by solely depending on honest emotions and drama that is not manipulative. It's a school of filmmaking quite a few new generation directors from Madurai embraced and with great results. While it's simple story didn't demand so much of honesty and boldness in the way it needed to be told, "Gundello Godaari" still tries its best to remain honest and bold in every scene by solely depending on the camera that doesn't shy away from the performances. And since performances too came without being manipulative and riding on emotions that seemed to be truly felt by the actors, the lingering-camera's approach succeeded well in telling two credible stories from the countryside. And retaining the integrity of that intent of the lingering camera is the editor who never chickens out to fast-cuts. Not an iota of desperation in either the crew or the cast while trying to tell a story that never announces to be too big in its scope. At least not while the camera is rolling. And that's the mark of a filmmaker who has confidence in the human drama material he has in his hands and faith in his actors. And meeting the promise is the fact that everyone delivered. Not a single actor can be picked for half-hearted rendering. And while everyone notices how beautiful the cinematographer's frames are, only a few can see how intelligently his camera positions and movements try to tell the same story that the actors are trying to tell. And that distinguishes Palani Kumar, the cinematographer from other cinematographers whose lenses are unfortunately for only great visuals. He has the eyes of a storyteller. Gifted would be directors who will work with him. And he would be one himself one day. Ditto, the person who handled the art-direction. It might be just a decision to cut costs on the producer's part, more than a desire to keep it simple, but the art-director did set the film's rural settings meaningfully well with so little that is available to him/her. R.K.Narayan said, "there is but one art, to omit." And that surprisingly helps many films that shouldn't be spending too much. And, needless to say, for all of us who grew up on A.R.Rahman's magic but only understood the meaning of soul of a song upon suddenly discovering the old melodies of Maestro Illayaraja on FM, he delivers a couple of new ones for this film. Wonder what it is that can help one get an yes from him. Go watch "Godaari". It doesn't lie. It's not the lying type.
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