Cinema Bandi (2021): A heart-warming and charming movie about filmmaking
What if a man who runs an auto rickshaw at a remote village near the border of Andhra Pradesh finds a bag that was left behind from one of his passengers? And what if in that bag there was a high-end camera? This is the premise of Cinema Bandi and this film is pure joy, humour and enthusiasm. Cinema Bandi is a film about filmmaking or rather how anyone can become a filmmaker and that is the essence of this film.
The Protagonist like I said is an Auto Driver Veera (played by Vikas Vasistha) and he is struggling to pay off his debt so as he watches TV one day, he sees that by making an independent film he has the chance to make a fortune and pay off his debts and not only that he contemplates that his village (named Gollapally) has never seen any developments i.e., roads, schools or any proper infrastructure so he convinces himself to make a film using the camera he finds. So conveniently Veera has a friend who is an amateur photographer named Ganapathi but he is an amateur at best who only takes photos of weddings and of the bride and groom by using a very basic camera, in fact when he first sees the camera he is astonished and tells Veera that “These types of cameras are used for making Mahesh Babu and Allu Arjun movies” He even thinks that the microphone on top of the camera is used to dust off something. There comic duality plays very nicely through the whole of the series. There are also many other fun and rememberable characters like the grandpa who is a so-called writer and has written many love stories (Veera boasts about grandpa on how he has written for a great magazine) but never utters a word through the entire film which makes it amusing. He gets roped in as the writer of the film and seeing him just so innocent and always at some corner of the frame sitting as if he knows nothing creates a humorous aspect. Then there is the salon owner who is roped in as the wannabe hero. He becomes so enthusiastic and eventually tells that he will become a massive hero like Mahesh Babu. He even creates a screen name for himself called Maridesh Babu. There is also the harsh and aggressive vegetable seller who gets roped in as the heroine. Basically, by using the people in the village to have them play the different roles in the process of filmmaking is really amusing especially when they are innocent and when they don’t know anything, but is heart-warming just to see them play out. It is these wonderful, fun and amusing characters that make the movie just a joy to watch. The villagers at first reject the way Veera is set to make a movie based on their hometown but after certain conflicts and how Veera convinces them this could make the village known to many and create prosperous times, they all cave into those prospects and help him out, leading to a series of heart-warming events. The village setting and the way it is shot is so authentic and beautiful. There is a sense of reality to the atmosphere and it allows the characters to blend in with the environment at ease.
The director (Praveen Kandregula) also creates a disparity in thinking between the villagers and the city dwellers (who are the owners of the camera). This could be evidently seen in a particular funny scene where when Veera and his team view previous recorded footage on the camera by where we can see the city friends dance in an artificially run rain. When they see this, they say that “I think they should do this rain dance in our village, at least all our lakes will be filled”. It is this disparity through which the director shows us that the villagers would obviously see that the city dwellers do not value water. But this scene is not preachy and it is shown through the lens of humour, which is a rarity. There are many comedic scenes throughout with subtle passion in those scenes and it is this which creates Cinema Bandi a gem. Also the director is not trying to explain the technicality of the filmmaking but rather the enjoyment and fulfilment that comes with it.
Cinema Bandi is a heart-warming, fun, humorous and charming film about filmmaking. These types of films are usually uncommon so do not miss this one as it will give you pure joy with a smile at the end and it is also an ode to cinephiles as the motto of the movie says “EVERYONE IS A FILMMAKER AT HEART”.