Mail(Telugu,Aha)
Starring Priyadarshi , Harshith Malgireddy, Mani Aegurla and Gouri Priya Reddy
Witten & Directed by Uday Gurrala
Rating: *** ½
Except for one monstrously glaring factual error in the plot, Mail is a charming gaze at the artless innocence of villagers in Kambalapally in Telangana where the computer has just come.The curiosity bordering on reverence of 18-year old Ravi(newcomer Harshith Malgireddy) is not only amusing but also deeply moving, if you are a sucker for rustic innocence(which no longer exists).
The intelligently-written script takes slurping swipes at all the inceptive misconceptions about the computer: the only man in the village who owns a computer, believes that any footwear in the sacred room housing the precious sacred digital deity can cause a virus .
The computer becomes the fulcrum of some outstanding but subtle humour , never savage always tender. In one of the many casually canny sequences , Ravi panics when the computer signals a switch-off beep, and he doesn’t know where to find the electrical outlet to control the impending catastrophe.
Such ostensibly trivial moments imbue the narrative with a sense of artless wonder, without becoming excessively cute. There is an aura of restrain about the satire in the presentation . Never overdone, but always on-target. In the manner in which the disingenuous drama is decorated delicately with shaded humour, the presentation reminded me of R K Narayan’s Malgudi Days.
This could well be Mail-gudi Days . And Harshith Malgireddy could well be Narayan’s Common Man in his youth. The fresh talent is truly charming.While Malgireddy is every inch the inquisitive techno-ignoramus, Manu Segurla as Ravi’s best friend is even better. Segurla’s casual causticity and biting sarcasm will kill you. If not, then he is someone you don’t want to run into , specially if you are in no position to lend him money.
The writing is clear on the growl. The humour is acerbic and bang-on,but never in a hurry to get to the punchline.This must be one of the best written comedies of Indian cinema of all times. There is just one fatal flaw. The characters are shown using gmail. There was no gmail in the inceptive years of the computer.
That apart , Mail is a sparkling example of how amusing a film on grassroot innocence can be if the heart is in the right place. The art just follows.I can’t wait to see what the debutant director does next. And where is the next film in the Kambalapally Kathalu series?
