Panchatantram
Telugu (Theatres)
Director: Harisha Pulipaka
Cast: Samuthirakani, Brahmanandam, Divya Sripada
Rating: 3.5/5
'Panchatantram' is a simple and a beautiful take attempting to associate memories through the sensory organs. It is a journey through life, encountering different slices of life.
The movie commences with Veda Vyas (Brahmanandam), who is now retired, telling his daughter, Roshni (Swathi Reddy), that he intends to participate in a storytelling contest. It is refreshing to see Brahmanandam in a non-comic character.
The film narrates five different small stories of quest, love, fear, death and hope, all anchored on the theme of five senses.
The first is the story of the sight of a postcard. A regular tale of a monotonous IT employee suddenly chancing upon a postcard photograph of a beach and eagerly awaits to visit a similar one in real life. Vihari (played by Naresh Agastya) embarks on this quest by seeing different beaches through others’ experiences. The second story is a simple beginning of love through traditional matchmaking.
Circling around honey cake and badam milk, this segment is a feel-good story which has Subhash and Lekha (played by Rahul Vijay and Shivathmika Rajasekhar respectively) coming together to realise the myth of perfect matches.
The sense of smell is third in the series, a short psychological thriller, where a father (Samuthirakani) exhibits signs of fear through the scent of blood. Although a short segment, Samuthirakani has brilliantly adorned the role of an anxious father whose daughter is due for her delivery.
The tactile signal of a baby’s movement within the mother’s womb is the fourth story. The husband, Shekar (played by Vikas), is seen taking his pregnant wife, Devi (played by Divya Sripada), to the hospital upon the sight of bleeding. The couple’s life takes a bleak turn for Devi is diagnosed with cancer in its advanced stage.
The last in the series is the sense of hearing and brings together the emotions of two physically challenged people. The storyteller, Chitra (played by Swathi Reddy), runs a show where she narrates the tales of 'Leia, the Superhero'. Veda Vyas narrates this story by paralleling the lead character to his own daughter. The finale segment is truly heartwarming.