Mallesham Mini Review

Mallesham Story: A sixth-standard school drop-out faces many ups and downs in life when he decides to design a weaving machine to ease the plight of his mother and many like her in his village, who take up Asu work.

Mallesham Review: Mallesham is the biopic of Padma Shri awardee Chintakindi Mallesham, but it doesn’t just show how he succeeded at completing the famous Asu machine, it also showcases the journey of many a Pochampally handloom weaver of Telangana who are deprived due to lack of livelihood from the art. Despite the numerous hardships the protagonist and villagers face, the film never lets the audience lose hope and instead keeps their confidence by finding solutions and searching for light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s not an easy task to recreate a person’s life or tell the story in a novel manner – especially when the story of someone like Mallesham is known to all, thanks to the TEDx talk he delivered. It’s even more difficult to do so without taking cinematic liberties or caving to the usual tropes. But Mallesham manages to pull off just that, adhering to the story in hand and staying away from glorification or emotional gratification. The film delivers what it promises – the story of a common man who dared to find a practical solution to the issue at hand, a man anyone can relate to. Director Raj Rachakonda needs to be lauded for this.

Kicking off in the ‘80s, the film unrolls the realities of handloom weavers of the era, slowly plunging into Mallesham’s childhood when he promises his mother Laxmi (Jhansi) a brighter future than the one they live in. The film progresses from cheerful and innocent childhood to teenage love, until a grown-up Mallesham (Priyadarshi) meets the love of his life Padma (Ananya). The film does a fabulous job of capturing the intricacies of village life in Telangana, everything from local festivals to movie talkies that many have lived by, proving to be a nostalgic trip. The fact that it’s all captured on sync helps it even more.

While Mallesham experiences love, he never forgets the conditions his mother and several other weavers live in. Withstanding criticism even from his family, the story delves into how he finds genius ways of coming up with an Asu machine. The dialect might be a little hard to follow at times, but it helps in maintaining the authenticity.

With Mallesham, Priyadarshi underlines the fact that he’s more than just a comedian; in fact, he’s a fine actor who needs to be taken seriously. Through the film, he maintains a beautiful balance between humour and emotion. Though a new-comer, Ananya justifies her role not just with how adorable she looks, but also the way she manages to pull off her role. Jhansi aces as the caring mother in a role she pulls off with élan.

Balu Sandilyasa’s camerawork helps bring out the nostalgia factor and set the story, while Mark K Robin’s music is effective. Director Raj and Peddinti Ashok Kumar’s script is the true hero here, keeping the audience glued to their seats from the title credits to end. With the path set for films like these with C/o Kancharapalem last year, proving that Telugu industry is capable of delivering indie films that are raw and heart-warming, Mallesham is sure to be a milestone for this year. Everything mentioned above and more is what makes it worth watching.