Tuesday, Oct 20, 2026

Slow narration mars the social drama ‘Gamanam’

Film: GamanamCast: Shriya Saran, Shiva Kandukuri, Priyanka Jawalkar and Charu Haasan It is an anthology that seeks to explore the lives of different characters in parallel. Starring Shriya Saran, Shiva Kandukuri, Priyanka Jawalkar and Charu Haasan in the lead roles, ‘Gamanam’ dwells into the lives of a hearing impaired woman Kamala (Shriya Saran), who earns […]

By Prakash Pecheti

Updated On - 10 December 2021, 12:58 AM

Slow narration mars the social drama ‘Gamanam’

Film: Gamanam
Cast: Shriya Saran, Shiva Kandukuri, Priyanka Jawalkar and Charu Haasan

It is an anthology that seeks to explore the lives of different characters in parallel.

Starring Shriya Saran, Shiva Kandukuri, Priyanka Jawalkar and Charu Haasan in the lead roles, ‘Gamanam’ dwells into the lives of a hearing impaired woman Kamala (Shriya Saran), who earns a meager living working as a daily wager in a cloth manufacturing unit, an aspiring cricketer Ali (Shiva Kandukuri), who has a big career dream in the world of cricket but at the same time doesn’t want to risk losing his girlfriend Zara (Priyanka Jawalkar). Another parallel story is of two slum kids who live at their own fate, struggling hard each day for their daily meal.

The movie seems to be inspired by a few real life events, mainly from the floods that displaced families in various low-lying pockets in the city. The livelihood of marginalised families in slums took a beating due to the torrential rains.

‘Gamanam’ boasts a good starcast with Shriya Saran perfectly slipping into her role. However, Priyanka, who usually gets to play glam roles, has been restricted to play a very conventional girl. Shiva Kandukuri, who impressed with his romantic comedy ‘Chusi Chudangane’, has experimented with something different. However, he didn’t get a chance to showcase his cricketing skills in the film.

Choosing a script of this sort with a social theme in the backdrop, is a good idea to experiment on the silver screen. But when it comes to execution, ‘Gamanam’ traverses haphazardly with restricted characterisation and slow narration.

Director Sujana Rao tries to connect the three stories and the struggles that the characters had to face during the testing times in their different independent journeys. The music composition from Illayaraja is a masterpiece, especially the background score in the climax sequence. The camera work from Gnana Sekhar should be commended. Charu Haasan and the child artistes along with Suhas did their bit. Nithya Menen surprises everyone with a special appearance in the film. However, apart from the artistes performances, there are not many takeaways from ‘Gamanam’.