Lets just recollect one of the finest films in Modern Telugu film history, Okkadu, directed by Gunashekar. Okkadu, a block-buster hit for Mahesh Babu and Gunashekar which also was remade in Tamil as Gilli and ran successfully. There are lot of interesting points in the screenplay of this film, that Gunasekhar very intelligently designed and implemented. Lets talk about the three brilliant clues here.
I am calling them as clues, but in cinema language they may be called as establishments. Establishments are used to give audience a prior information of what is going to happen next so that audience will be well prepared when the actual scene happens. These establishments can be made explicitly to the audience or can be just a glimpse and leave it to the audience to catch those clues.
Let me give you a simple example from the same film. It happens during the introduction of Prakash Raj's mother, Telangana Shakuntala character. She has a pet dog and she throws a ball to a distance that her pet dog sees, runs towards the ball, catches it and gives it back to her. This happens at her introduction as a establishment scene. Its about her and the relation with the dog that the Director is telling to the audience. The same scene happens during the climax, when she throws a bomb, the dog runs and brings the bomb to her which apparently blasts and causes to end of her character. This is where he Re-Used what he established earlier.
Even if we are not paying 100% attention to the first scene, still the chances are many that the first scene, (establishment) would have got registered in our mind and when we see the climax, where the dog picks up the bomb, we recollect and relate it to the first intro scene.
Directors use this technique to make the scenes look logical.
As we have understood the concept of establishment (clue) and re-using it, lets see the three brilliant such scenes which Director established and used at later part of the film. First one is my favorite.
1. Men in Concentric circles - circling the Hero
At the very beginning of the film, during Mahesh babu introduction, we see a batch, called Soda gang circle him to attack. Thats how Mahesh is introduced. As the scene progresses, Mahesh babu smiles surprising the Soda gang, in the background Mahesh babu friends come around and circle the Soda gang batch. We see a top-angle shot of the concentric circles with Mahesh babu at the center.
The same top angle shot has been used in the pre-climax when Prakash Raj takes Mahesh babu out of jail and takes him to a remote area to kill him. That's when again Mahesh friends come and circle around the Villain gang, and Mahesh standing at the centre, says the popular punch dialogue " తెల్ల డ్రెస్ వేసిన ప్రతోడు ఫ్యాక్షనిస్ట్ కాదు " ("Not every guy in white dress is a Factionist")
Typically for me, this is very brilliant usage of establishment shot.
2. Mahesh Roof-Top entrance to his Room
This is the second interesting establishment that Director has made at the beginning of the film. This can be called as one of the unique features of the film, Mahesh having a Roof-top entrance to his room. If you are watching it for the first time, without any knowledge of the story, then definitely it surprises you, how Director used this entrance, in the later part when he brings Bhoomika to the house. If I am right, Mahesh uses this entrance, couple of times before he actullay brings Bhoomika in, so that audience are informed enough times that all the scenes are going as per the logic.
Not just for bringing her in, in fact more impact is created when Police bring sniffer dogs, to catch the kidnapper but they fail after certain distance of search, for the very reason that the kidnapper didn't use a regular path while taking the girl away. So, this entrance not only helped to safely bring Bhoomika to the house but also helped in escaping from the sniffer dogs - ఒక్క దెబ్బ కు రెండు పిట్టలు.
3. Dolls in Mahesh Room
This is in continuation of the his introduction scene when Mahesh enters his house, he sees his sister gang dancing in his room and he specifically mentions about the dolls in the room. We get few close-up shots of the doll as well. All these are made to explicitly inform audience about the dolls and to let the dolls get registered in the minds of audience so that later in the part when Bhoomika hides in the room, she uses those dolls as one of the hiding places.
During the script/screenplay development I believe these thoughts would have been made, answering the questions like where can she hide in his room, from Mahesh's parents and sister. One option could be a cupboard, which is the first thing used and there has to be few interesting alternatives to keep the audience engaged. And then again, if you bring suddenly something at that point, it may look illogical as audience are not informed before. Director Gunashekar rightly did it by establishing the dolls first and then using it when it mattered.
Those are the three brilliant re-usages of the establishments in this film, Okkadu by Director Gunashekar. Digging inside the film made me feel that this movie is also way ahead of its times. I really wish he comes up with another brilliant script as Okkadu.
All the Best Mr. Gunasekhar.
- Sai Kiran
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