Vanaja

Vanaja is a 2006 Telugu drama written and directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli, made as his Master of Fine Arts thesis at Columbia University and produced by his mother, Latha Domalpalli, on a shoestring budget. Mamatha Bhukya plays the title role, the 15-year-old daughter of a poor fisherman in rural Andhra Pradesh, at the head of a cast made up entirely of non-professional first-time actors. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2006, won the Best First Feature award at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival, and was ranked by Roger Ebert among the five best foreign-language films of 2007.

What the story is about

Vanaja is the daughter of Somayya, a low-caste fisherman struggling with dwindling catches and mounting debts. After she and her friend Lacchi watch a performance by Rama Devi, the local landlady and once a great Kuchipudi dancer, a soothsayer tells Vanaja she will become a great dancer. With her father’s permission she goes to work in Rama Devi’s house, hoping to learn. She starts as a farmhand tending the chickens, is moved to the kitchen under the crusty, fiercely loyal old cook Radhamma, and, by tactfully letting the landlady win a game of ashta chamma, earns her mentorship, first in music and then in dance. Vanaja seems set on a steady rise until Rama Devi’s 23-year-old son, Shekhar, returns from the United States to run for local office, and the gulf of class and caste between the two households begins to shape her life.

Cast

• Mamatha Bhukya as Vanaja
• Urmila Dammannagari as Rama Devi, the landlady
• Ramachandriah Marikanti as Somayya, Vanaja’s father
• Krishnamma Gundimalla as Radhamma, the cook
• Karan Singh as Shekhar
• Bhavani Renukunta as Lacchi, Vanaja’s friend
• Krishna Garlapati as Ram Babu the postman, and Prabhu Garlapati as Yadigiri, the farmhand who taunts Vanaja

How it was made

Domalpalli, an electrical engineer who had worked as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, began the story as a first-semester project at Columbia in 2001. He told indieWIRE it was first inspired by a child’s scream at being separated from her mother in Sophie’s Choice; over the following semesters it became, in his words, a study of class distinction and conflict, and of fading folk arts. Unable to raise money in India or the US, he began filming in 2004 with USD 20,000 from his mother and cast non-actors, training them for a year. The team met roughly 2,500 children and interviewed about 260 before choosing Vanaja and Lacchi; Mamatha Bhukya was then taught Kuchipudi for a year by Srinivas Devarakonda, a disciple of Vempati Chinna Satyam. Urmila Dammannagari came to an advertisement for household help that was really a search for the landlady; Krishnamma Gundimalla was a construction worker and Ramachandriah Marikanti a municipal sweeper. Milton Kam shot the film on Super 16mm, largely in a dilapidated bungalow in Bobbili. The background score uses Carnatic music, with violin by B. S. Narayanan, and rarely heard folk songs recorded in villages across rural Andhra.

Festivals and awards

After Toronto, where it was nominated for the Diesel Discovery Award, Vanaja played at more than 100 festivals in 49 countries and won 24 international awards. Besides the Best First Feature award in Berlin, where the screening drew a standing ovation, its prizes include a special jury prize at Cairo, Best Feature at Memphis, the Miloš Macourek Award at Zlín, Best Cinematography at Rhode Island and the top live-action feature prize at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival; Mamatha Bhukya won best actress at the Asian Festival of First Films. It was nominated for Best First Feature and Best Cinematography at the Independent Spirit Awards, its screenplay was invited into the permanent archive of the Margaret Herrick Library, and in 2011 it was one of 13 “key films” in the Locarno festival’s focus on India. It opened in US cinemas on 31 August 2007.

What critics said

Reviews were largely positive, with particular praise for the theme and for Bhukya. Rotten Tomatoes records 85% positive from 26 critics. Roger Ebert called Bhukya “a natural star” and said Domalpalli tells his story “with tender precision”. Laura Kern of The New York Times found it engrossing “if slightly overlong” and timeless, while Variety said it “touches the heartstrings” and that its social message “never feels forced”, though it saw art-house rather than obvious box-office appeal. The Chicago Tribune and the Hartford Courant both compared it to Charles Dickens. Dissenting, the New York Post called it long and tedious melodrama, and Time Out felt the narrative meanders but evokes village life “with stark authenticity”.

Where to watch Vanaja

Our OTT record lists Vanaja on Netflix, but that entry is not backed by a checked platform listing and Wikipedia does not mention a streaming release, so confirm on Netflix before subscribing. The film was released on DVD in the US on 8 March 2008 with English subtitles.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Vanaja and the reviews and interviews it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.