Swarnakamalam story at a glance
There are very films in Telugu Cinema which speak equally about Fine Arts, Relationships, Female independence and balance them in a swift fashion. K.Vishwanath, an ace director of Tollywood was competent enough to choose these aspects and excel in them. The film is none other than Swarna Kamalam starring Venkatesh and Bhanupriya in the lead which speaks about the current generation’s attitude towards Art, Value of relationships and how eternal an art form can become.
Story Details:
Meenakshi (Bhanupriya) is younger daughter of a famous Kuchipudi Guru Vedantham Seshendra Sarma. She is quite talented dancer but seeing her family’s poverty and the lack of value regarding fine arts, Meenakshi is drawn more towards the modern style of living involving materialistic possessions. In this regard this is quite independent and individualistic in her thoughts. Her elder sister Savitri (Devilalitha) is the only breadwinner of the family because her father is in ill health. But Meenakshi dreams of better life consisting of riches and it is when she meets Chandrasekhar (Venkatesh) who along with his kid friend (Shanmukha Srinivas) arrive beside their house to live. Chandrasekhar, is a painter but has high artistic values and admires art. He immediately identifies the tremendous talent Meenakshi has and tries in every way to get her expose her talent. But Meenakshi misunderstands these intentions and the story takes a serious turn when her father dies.
Will Meenakshi manage to get the life of her choice or will she understands the greatness of dance?
What is the role of Chandrasekhar in making Meena a great talented dancer?
Materialistic possessions or Art? Which is greater?
The rest of the story speaks about questions of this sort and takes the viewer to a new artistic World altogether.
Performances:
Venkatesh is adorable as the Art Connoisseur and a caring personality. His role is pivotal to the film because he is the one who makes Meenakshi realize the greatness of Art forms. He does his job phenomenally and this film earned him great name as an upcoming actor. This film gave a new image to Bhanupriya as an actress all over again. An actress who was doing mainly glamorous roles except for few Vamshi’s films, Swarna Kamalam explored the tremendous potential she has not only as a classical dancer but also as an actress. She gave life to the character of Meenakshi in every frame and her line “Ardham Cheskoru!” became most influential in Telugu Cinema. Srilakshmi and Sakshi Ranga Rao offer great comedy relief in this artistic epic and Shanmukha Srinivas gives another memorable performance in this film.
Technical Aspects:
Dialogues by Sainath establish this film as one of the best classics as far as Fine Art films are concerned. The lines are crisp and direct, yet make a serious impact on the viewer. Sainath did a commendable job especially in emotional scenes and the lines about Fine Arts. Lok Singh’s Cinematography is like a lifeline for the film as he shot the songs with amazing perfection and the scenes were brilliantly captured. The songs were filmed in exotic locations apart from the main film being shot mostly in Vizag area. Music by Ilaiyaraaja is another crucial aspect for the film being a classical dance based theme and he does his job with more than perfect orchestration and brilliance. Lyrics by Sirivennela Sitaramasastry aid so much to the overall theme of the film. The production values are decent making the film great in every aspect. Direction by K.Vishwanath is picture perfect and he proved to do justice to his title Kala Tapasvi by bringing this masterpiece on silver screen.
Cast and Crew:
Chandrasekhar- Venkatesh
Meenakshi- Bhanupriya
Chandrasekhar’s Friend- Shanmukha Srinivas
Omkaram- Sakshi Ranga Rao
Akhilam- Srilakshmi
Savitri- Devilalitha
Sharon Lowen- The famous Odissi Dancer as herself
Dialogues- Sainath
Story- K.Vishwanath
Cinematography- Lok Singh
Lyrics- Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry