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Coming back to life
GODAVARI RUNS through his veins. The hum of the rail reverberates in his heart. The fog cover over the undulating greenery of Araku valley caresses his mind. These are not mere entities, but his lifeline.
The sun rises over Papikondalu filling his heart with happiness, lounged as he is in a launch. The palanquin of white clouds bring with them a million thoughts.
And more light into his eyes. The gurgle of pristine waters seeps into his mind and awakens the creative soul from its slumber.
``Nothing soothes like nature. My life is woven around Godavari, Araku and Papikondalu. Everything here is pure - water, sand, air. Such is the beauty, one is reduced to tears. They keep replenishing the creative juices in me,'' says Vamsy, the creative filmmaker, who had the Telugu marquee awash with sheer poetry.
After a self-imposed hibernation spanning six years wherein he wandered the Godavari hinterlands, voraciously reading and watching plays in small hamlets, he is back to his creative odyssey with Telugu cinema.
"Like a doting mother, Godavari has given me a new lease of life,'' avers the man fresh from the rebirth of sorts with Maharshi Movies and Anandi Creations `Avunu, Valliddaru Ishtapaddaru.'
Vamsy completes 20 years as a filmmaker this month. Manchu Pallaki, Sitara, Anveshana, Alapana, Preminchu Pelladu, Maharshi, Ladies Tailor, Sri Kanakamalakshmi Recording Dance Troupe, April Okati Vidudala... his films have always delighted the Telugus.
``Cinema is an amalgamation of all fine arts -- be it poetry, music, paintings. In isolation, it is nothing,'' says Vamsy. "Filmmakers should have an indepth knowledge of all creative arts not just cinematic techniques.''
No wonder, reading takes much of his time. It could be a book on Van Gogh's works, Pillalamarri Chinna Veerabhadrudu's `Sringara Sakuntalam' or the inimitable Bapu's works. So does watching European classics of Krzysztof Kieslowski, Tarkovsky, Jean-luc Godard, Roman Polanski and Claude Chabrol. "Their films fuelled the aesthetics in me. The abstractness of their works continues to intrigue me.'' In the same breath, he says with childlike enthusiasm, "a friend of mine is sending 150 DVDs of these classics from the US. A treasure they are.''
The temperamental artiste in him conducts a consistent sometimes mysterious visual euphony, frame after frame - those prancing eyes, fluttering fingers, frames that move at a lightning speed and poetic expressions with his distinct stamp. "All these have evolved from sensitive writings that I read,'' he says. And beneath his impressionistic style lies artistic honesty and the quintessential Telugu characteristics. "I seek inspiration from my own surroundings. I observe the world go by. Our lives are plain, but it all depends on how one looks at it and finds the needle in the haystack of commonality,'' he says.
What is Vamsy like in real life? "I am like anyone else. I hardly go out. My small tenement is my world. Here, I learn constantly,'' smiles the director. Music is his constant companion.
"From Mozart to Alban, Salil Choudhary to Ilayaraja, I listen to them all.'' He's not just a filmmaker, but a writer too, who wields words like arrows. "I'm not a big name in literature. But my writing abilities ensured my survival during my struggling days. I used to write pulp fiction which appeared in others names,'' he recalls. His national award winning `Sitara' was based on his own novel `Mahallo Kokila' while novels like `Gokulamlo Radha' and `Galikondapuram Railway Gate' were published as serials in weeklies.
Vamsy is currently giving finishing touches to a series in a popular film mag, but his literary magnum opus set in a fictitious village, Pasalapudi a la Malgudi "will surely give me a small place of my own in the literary world,'' he affirms. `Maa Pasalapudi Kadhalu 52' traces the humane element in ordinary Telugu lives and will come out next year.
On the current crop of Telugu movies, he says: "We are making average movies when compared to Malayalam and Tamil. Several good movies in recent times are remakes. Even songs are remakes. We have talented writers, but filmmakers seem to be wary of experimentation.''
Asked to trace his career highs and lows, he maintains: "What did I achieve? It's a constant question that troubles me. It isn't enough to have a beautiful concept, everything should fall in place. After all, cinema is a business.''
``Parts of `Sitara' and `April Okati Vidudala' is what I liked amongst my works,'' he concedes. His ideal film? "Donga Ramudu and Sholay.'' "If I'm able to make a movie like `Donga Ramudu', I would say that I have arrived.''
``I was going through a low ebb in my life when I was making my last few films. I have overcome them and am happy to be back to where I belong,'' he asserts.
And so are thousands of Telugus eagerly watching his coming back to life. Welcome back, Vamsy.
By Madhav K V S
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Life
Bangalore
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