Cinema Bandi (2021)

Cinema Bandi is set in a village somewhere near Madanapalle (Andhra – Karnataka border). Resting on a one-line story, it begins without much build-up and comes to the main point in 15 minutes: a villager trying to make a feature film in his village with a found camera. In a nutshell, ‘Cinema Bandi’ makes a decent watch on the OTT platforms for its honest effort from the makers. The naturalism in the setting, and humor score over other logical issues.

The movie about Veera’s movie often mirrors its anything-goes quality. The Telugu comedy Cinema Bandi has a winning set-up, oodles of heart and snarky humour, which compensate for the unstructured and rambling narrative and simplistic approach.

Cinema Bandi is a love letter to the art of cinema. The film is set in a remote village, which is far away from all the comforts that urban dwellers take for granted. Life in the countryside is simple and villagers are resigned to their fate, they don’t expect the government to improve their standard of living. At least that’s what Ganapathi (Sandeep Varanasi), who drives an auto-rickshaw in his village for a living, believes.

Cinema Bandi is an indie film that stays so true to its characters and the world that it explores that it leaves a positive vibe even when some of its subplots, like the search for the camera, don’t quite hold well. Praveen Kandregula turns the act of making a film into a framework to connect people to dream a common dream. Veerababu sets out to change his world at the beginning of the film. And in doing so, he becomes an unlikely hero, who never gives up. Isn’t that what defines a filmmaker too?