A nonetheless from Srikanth. (courtesy: YouTube)
Aided by an exquisitely skilful efficiency from Rajkummar Rao – this even though the actor has to push himself to the bounds to return throughout as a youngster and a twentysomething – Srikanth is not a mean Bollywood biopic. It seldom takes recourse to overt melodrama to showcase the magnitude of the visually impaired protagonist’s achievements.
Directed by Tushar Hiranandani, who has two properly obtained biographical works behind him (the sports activities drama Saand Ki Aankh and the net collection Rip-off 2003), Srikanth narrates the unbelievable true story of industrialist Srikanth Bolla, who made his approach out of poverty, went to MIT and returned to India to arrange a company entity that’s like no different.
Srikanth is a traditional rags-to-riches saga that’s enriched enormously by the director’s refusal to make use of the usual tropes of the style. Not solely does he maintain the storytelling easy and ship-shape, he additionally ensures that the craft that has gone into the venture – cinematographer Pratham Mehta and editors Debasmita Mitra and Sanjay Sankla do their jobs to perfection – doesn’t overshadow the essence of the narrative.
The congenitally sightless hero fights seemingly insurmountable odds, together with widespread discrimination, dispiriting bullying and a myopic schooling system that has no scope for otherwise abled individuals to go in for larger research within the discipline of science even when they rating the requisite grades.
Barring a considerably shrill opening sequence that over-dramatizes the circumstances and the instant repercussions of the beginning of a blind boy in a village in Machilipatnam in then undivided Andhra Pradesh, the screenplay by Jagdeep Siddhu and Sumit Purohit steers properly away from overly maudlin strategies.
Even within the pivotal courtroom scenes through which Srikanth, with trainer Devika (Jy0thika) steadfastly by his facet, has to persuade a decide, a school principal and a skeptical lawyer that he deserves a good shot, the movie devises methods to not undermine its reasonable tonal qualities even because it makes a powerful case for people with bodily abnormalities to be given equal alternatives.Admittedly, on just a few events – one in every of them centres on a harrowing second through which Srikanth’s father digs a pit early within the movie, an act that he repeats a lot later in a very altered context – the movie tends to state the apparent whenever you count on it to go away one thing to the creativeness and the interpretative colleges of the viewers.
Srikanth tells the outstanding story of a younger man endowed with distinctive imaginative and prescient and tenacity however doesn’t shrink back from pointing to the fragile junctures in Srikanth Bolla’s life when he comes precariously near letting his self-confidence flip into a level of vanity and success into streaks of insouciance.
These moments of weak spot set off friction with the handful of key individuals in his life, together with his girlfriend Swathi (Alaya F), a medical pupil who connects with him on social media earlier than assembly him in individual on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT), the place Srikanth enrolls as a full scholarship pupil.
Whereas it crafts an attractive portrait of a person whose single-minded pursuit of his personal targets and a plan to assist different bodily challenged and economically deprived individuals discover a agency footing in life, it additionally acknowledges the chinks within the man’s armour that threaten to push his true well-wishers away from him.
Srikanth makes use of the Qayamat Se Qayamat tune Papa kehte hai bada naam karega beta hamara aisa kaam karega as a musical chorus but it surely doesn’t focus a lot on the hero’s father as on a trainer who takes the boy beneath her wings and teaches him learn how to fly within the face of adversity.
If trainer Devika is the anchor who offers Srikanth the liberty to dream, investor and buddy Ravi (Sharad Kelkar) is the person who believes within the protagonist’s aspiration to personal and run a enterprise of his personal.
Srikanth shouldn’t be given to saying sorry, however he does say thanks both in so many phrases. After all, he delivers a whole soliloquy that acknowledges his supporters and his personal fierce sense of self-worth. The contradictory impulses inside him are completely comprehensible provided that he has by no means had something straightforward.
An vital passage of the movie revolves across the then President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and his “Lead India” marketing campaign, which conjures up Srikanth to redouble his efforts to attain what his coronary heart wishes. Nevertheless, an encounter with a self-seeking politician leaves him disillusioned and teaches him a lesson or two in regards to the pitfalls of short-cuts.
The flexibility to ‘see’ with out one’s eyes is crucial component within the Srikanth story. It’s what units him aside. Fundamental sirf sapna hello dekh sakta hoon (I can see solely in my goals) is a line that he delivers greater than as soon as. Dream large, he retains insisting when Ravi tries to rein him in together with his actuality checks.
However Srikanth can also be a person of motion. He goes from Fundamental sab kuch kar sakta hoon (I can do every part) to Fundamental kuch bhi kar sakta hoon (I can do something). The previous is an assertion of intent; the latter has the ring of a warning. The character turns into all of the extra relatable due to the interior pulls and pressures that he encounters as he offers with challenges from inside and with out.
Rajkummar Rao performs Srikanth from roughly the age of 14 – that’s how outdated the Bollant Industries founder was when he first met President Abdul Kalam – to about his mid-20s. It clearly is not straightforward for the actor to go himself off as a youngster, however he delivers a efficiency that’s so convincing and nuanced on all different counts – the bodily impairment, the dialogue supply, the physique language – that one can’t however marvel.
The lead actor has distinctive assist from Jyothika and Sharad Kelkar – each are epitomes of restraint in step with the sustained balanced timbre of the drama.
Srikanth, as uplifting a movie as any, deserves a large viewers. It’s greater than a mere story. It’s a heartwarming celebration of a approach of seeing the world in a brand new mild.
Forged:
Rajkummar Rao, Jyotika, Alaya F, Sharad Kelkar, Jameel Khan
Director:
Tushar Hiranandani
