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Sundari Movie Review: An outdated film whose gaze is problematic
Poorna, who is seen in almost every scene, plays a monotonous character and her one-note performance is glaringly inadequate.
Title: Sundari
Cast: Poorna, Arjun Ambati and others
Director: Kalyanji Gogana
Rating: 1.5/5
'Sundari' is a regressive film that makes its dated notions pretty much clear through its characters right off the bat. An uncle shames a young girl for wearing a short. A male character says that second-time marriage is nothing but lust. The male lead gives a tight kiss to the titular character because he wants to make sure that he is not dreaming about her presence. Since the kiss serves the purpose of convincing him that he is not dreaming, apparently he doesn't need to take her consent. The film also parades the problematic notion that someone is an orphan and therefore it's natural that he is money-minded.
Prabhu (Arjun Ambati) falls head over heels in love with Sundari (Poorna), a village belle. He is an orphan and works for an IT company. Before you know, they get married after a laughably over-the-top rom-com segment. Sundari is extremely timid and looks paranoid in the city. When her husband loses his job and starts blaming her horoscope for his fate, Sundari is in for a nightmarish life. Since the caption of the movie is 'The ultimate decision of an innocent lady', we expect a twist in the tale as well.
Writer-director Kalyanji Gogana makes Sundari, who is merely demure, look like a damsel in distress. The outmoded characterization is made all the more insufferable by the fact that the men around her are consistently lecherous. Their creepiness is portrayed in the laziest manner conceivable. The scenes smack of the 1990s-era movies that sometimes bordered on the soft porn. A female character is made to say that the only way out for a jittery newly-wed woman to shed her inhibitions is to go for the first night ASAP. Is sex with the hubby the only way to chill out? In no time, the woman is made to say that her hubby doesn't have to watch skimpily clad models in 'item' songs now that he is married.
Arjun Ambati talks a lot to himself to make sure that he comes from a TV background (spoiler alert for those beautiful people who don't watch Telugu TV serials: The characters in them talk more to themselves than those in their family).
The men lusting Poorna's character are given the luxury to titillate the audience than seem repulsive. Whenever Ritesh (Rakendu Mouli) creepily woos her, the background music is from his perspective; it is as if the film is enjoying the fact that he is harassing her.
The montage shots capturing Sundari's inner churn are vague and melodramatic. After a point, her unending silence becomes unbearable. She undergoes torture wearing a revealing dress in a scene and one wonders what was the purpose of the coarse scene in the first place.
It's strange that the film has either vulgar men brandishing their libido at the drop of a hat or nonchalant ones who leave Sundari to her fate. There is no sensible man in the film. It's as if the whole of mankind was born to be unkind to Sundari.
Suresh Bobbili's music is wasted by a screenplay that is either ambivalent or outright silly or both. Bal Reddy's cinematography doesn't have the space to navigate, considering that much of the film takes place indoors. Poorna, who is seen in almost every scene, plays a monotonous character and her one-note performance is glaringly inadequate.
Check out Sundari trailer below:
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