A 'Reddy' reckoner of 70's campus politics
The atmosphere is just right for the release of 'George Reddy'. With the country's known left bastion JNU already in the news for its prolonged student agitation, this film, based on the violent times of the 1970s in Osmania University campus is in many ways a mirror of that era, in which far-reaching ideological and political changes took place in India.
Having whipped up considerable interest with regard to its content and bagging its share of celebrity endorsements and controversies, the movie stays faithfully rooted to what it sets out to showcase – the brave, never-say-die biography of George Reddy ( Sandeep Madhav) who was a tall student union leader of his period.
Given that the students were under the spell of mainstream student union leaders (no prizes for guessing, who they were and which parties they belonged to) then, director B Jeevan Reddy painstakingly builds up the alternate platform based on Red ideology onto which the protagonist moves his faithful flock.
Of course, George Reddy has the entire Establishment against him – a strict, one-sided Vice-Chancellor, openly biased police force, rival student gangs and the lumpens of the old city who bay for his blood.
Not taking too strident a stand on any issue, the film just keeps on and on with the struggles of the hero, who has a doting mother, a weak-in-the-knees heroine ( Muskaan Khubchandani), a constantly supportive set of friends and fellow students ( Pawon Ramesh stands out among them) and remains content stringing all of them together.
Unlike the openly Leftist-oriented films which Telugu cinema patrons had seen over the years, this film merely scrapes the surface, allowing the viewers to idolise the hero, rather than identify with the causes and the ideology which he based it on. Using a commercial framework to narrate what could have been a serious, impactful film seems an attempt to satisfy both the mass and the class crowd.
The heroics of George Reddy are well-documented, but the rawness and the realistic overtone which one seeks in such flicks is missing. As far as Sandeep Madhav goes, he seems tailor-made for the role, with a serious, focused demeanour.
He is let down by a narration which makes him an unvanquished star rather than a hard-working mass leader who strived to bring in an egalitarian, student-friendly ambience in the University.
This is where the film ends up a routine glorification of a real life icon, who is still revered by the old timers in the city and everywhere in the country.