Yuva Chandra and Ananya in ‘Pottel’

Telugu movie Pottel it is not for the faint of heart. Written and directed by Sahit Mothkuri, the film presents a story of how education is an essential tool to combat oppression, which in turn can pave the way for better healthcare and lifestyle. Pottel was set in the Vikarabad region of Telangana decades ago, but the idea is still relevant. The director’s vision gets ample support from his cast – Yuva Chandra Krishna, Ananya Nagalla, Ajay and the child actors – and the technical team. Some portions are moving and can make the audience root for a father who is doing his best to educate his daughter. However, the narrative is full of melodramatic tropes, and the repeated violence against women and children can make for uncomfortable viewing.

Confrontation in Pottel is primarily between two characters – Patel (Ajay) who holds the village under his thumb and uses rituals including animal and human sacrifices in the name of God and Gangadhar (Yuva Chandra) who sees through his game plan and sees education as the only way to fight for equality. They are on either side of the spectrum.

In the opening sequence, the director gives us an idea of ​​Patel’s brutality and Gangadhar summons all his strength to race against time to save his daughter. Patel’s childhood story and the violence he inflicts on Gangadhar at the beginning of the film indicate his characterization on the lines of mainstream masala films. The tropes are similar to that of an all-encompassing oppressor driven by his selfish need for power. The women in Patel’s life are silent sufferers. The village is no better; most are painted with a broad brush; they blindly follow the ritualistic beliefs and rarely question the Patel.

What sets this story of the struggle against oppression apart is how it establishes the importance of education through an incident involving a father and his two sons. If even one of them could have read the warning sign near the well, a life could have been saved. The father understands the need for education, but little does he know what he is up against. The village was under the control of the upper class patels, who forbid lower caste people from entering the school premises.

In his narration, Sahit Mothkuri states that change cannot happen overnight. It may take several generations for the light to appear at the end of the tunnel. Gangadhar is a goatherd, but interestingly, he is the only one who does not succumb to the herd mentality. Such details enhance the narrative. He also names his daughter Saraswathy, although he is aware of how difficult it would be to educate her against the restrictions imposed by the upper caste. A goat or ram (the pot in Telugu) also play a key role in this story driven by ritualistic practices.

Gangadhar’s struggle gains momentum with the support of his wife Bujjiamma (Ananya Nagalla). From the beginning, I wondered what made Bujji different from the other women in the village. The backstory is gradually revealed.

The film’s strength is its premise on the importance of education, and its weakness is in its overt reliance on melodramatic tropes. Men, women and children who dare to speak up are repeatedly dealt with an iron fist. When women are slapped, punched and kicked, or when a child is repeatedly thrown to the ground, it becomes a tool for emotional manipulation of the audience.

There are occasional silver linings. When a school teacher undergoes a transformation, or when a child reads a pamphlet that has long been a waste paper among illiterate villagers, the film is promising. But it soon returns to tiresome melodramatic tropes.

Yuva Chandra, Ananya and Ajay are perfect in their characters and hold the film together. Sekhar Chandra’s music and Monish Bhupathi Raju’s cinematography that captures the arid region and harsh lifestyle in vivid detail accentuate the narrative.

If Pottel it would have relied less on amplifying Patel’s brutality and resorted to more intelligent storytelling, it would have made for a compelling story that was less explored from the inside.