"Vanaja" | Short takes

Castes, dignity in India

"Vanaja," with Mamatha Bhukya, Urmila Dammannagari, Karan Singh. Written and directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli. 111 minutes. Not rated; for mature audiences (contains some sexual content). In Telugu with English subtitles. Varsity.

"Vanaja" has the otherworldly feel of a fairy tale but the bitter content of a drama about class and female exploitation. The odd little story set in southern India — about a girl who watches her once-bright hopes for the future dissolve into something worse than servitude — stars Mamatha Bhukya as the film's titular, lower-caste heroine.

A slender teen left unprotected by a drunken father, Vanaja captures the attention of the village landlady, Rama Devi (Urmila Dammannagari). She moves onto Rama Devi's estate and becomes a student of Kuchipudi dance, her coltish body jerking along to the form's complex choreography.

But it isn't long before the landlady's hunky son (Karan Singh), an aspiring politician, alters the course of Vanaja's life, ultimately chaining her to a raw deal in which her class limitations eclipse every other consideration of her humanity.

Writer-director Rajnesh Domalpalli — working with a nonprofessional cast and in dreamy, exotic hues — has managed to blur the line between stylized fantasy and dreary realism, coming up with a movie that seems both contemporary and quite old. "Vanaja" is a timeless story of dignity maintained against all odds.

— Tom Keogh, Special to The Seattle Times