Review of 'Sridevi Soda Center': Capturing mainstream spices

Review of 'Sridevi Soda Center': Capturing mainstream spices

Director Karuna Kumar's Palasa 1978 (2020) was in a raw, rustic space and explored the politics of caste, especially with non-white and black characters. Along with the Sridevi Soda Center, Karuna Kumar takes a mainstream approach keeping in mind the presence of actor Sudhir Babu and tries to keep the story crimson while discussing issues of honor.

The film is set in the Godavari belt, which is often sought after by Telugu cinema for its picturesque quality. Karuna Kumar and cinematographer Shamdat show us small town festivals instead of air-brushed Godavari region where the fault lines of class and caste divisions run deep and ignore the lights of celebration. Suri Babu (Sudhir Babu) is a lighting expert for all the festivals in the village. He, his father (Raghu Babu) and friend (Satyam Rajesh) take pride in his work and refuse to submit to Kasi.

The adrenaline-pumping boat race that unfolds on sun-kissed water sets the stage for the battles to follow. Sudhir Babu shows off his torn muscles in a slow motion shot and sets Mani Sharma’s enthusiastic background score mood. Before navigating the awkward spaces in the story, this is probably Karuna Kumar’s way of drawing people accustomed to mainstream descriptions to invest in proceedings.

The romance between Suri Babu and Sridevi (Anandi) unfolds at a relentless pace. Since it is easy to guess the motives of the main opponent, the decisive revelation in the latter is no surprise.

Karuna Kumar reveals his cards in the third act, while the story is about a good person vs. Bad guy trope. Suri may be clearly against the negative Kasi, but what makes the father (VK Naresh) who takes pride in his daughter’s fiery nature but fails to understand that she is the agency in choosing the man she wants to be with?

‘He may be a good person, but not our person’, he says, pointing to the caste divide. The conversation between father and daughter, where she claims that even if the world changes, she will hold on to her ideas of family and social respect, and she insists that, for the rest of her life, she will not bow to old ideas, otherwise Is one of the best scenes.

Although this is a different story, subconsciously I paralleled the father-daughter encounter in Uppena as well as the Orv segment of director Vetrimaran in the Netflix Tamil anthology Pava Kadaigal.

The Sridevi Soda Center has a lot to offer - Sudhir Babu explores large-scale sections and challenges the emotional upheaval of a cornered person; Hilarious is charming where needed and insists in parts that it needs to be more than just a beautiful face; Raghu Babu and Satyam Rajesh are good in their assigned tasks. Soda centers, shadow puppets and the occasional folk music add to the rustic atmosphere.

However, over-indulging in mainstream occupations pulls the film down. Take, for example, the sequence of battles between Sudhir and Ajay. Despite the good choreography, it does nothing for the story. The same goes for some of the songs that add about 154 minutes to the length of the film.

Sridevi Soda Center is a kind of film that is made when the art-house and the mainstream meet in the middle but it is not unified. There are some memorable moments and hard hitting segments, but the film doesn’t take you away from you.

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