Villages in Telangana screen ‘Balagam’ to strengthen family relations

Telugu movie 'Balagam',is setting another trend with the movie being screened in different villages across the State

Karimnagar: The Telugu movie ‘Balagam‘, which became more popular in recent past, is setting another trend with the movie being screened in different villages across the State.

The movie, which talks about family relations, human values and ethics, is being screened with sarpanches in several villages taking the lead.

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Over the last few days, the movie has been screened in many villages in the erstwhile Karimnagar district. It was first screened on the occasion of Ugadi festival, at Vattimalla in Konaraopet mandal of Rajanna-Sircilla district.

Later, it was screened in Kasaram and Upparamallial of Gangadhar mandal of Karimnagar, Jaggasagar, Metpalli mandal of Jagtial district, Venkatraopet of Konaraopet mandal and other villages.

With public screenings of movies in rural areas being a thing of the past, the movie is bringing back memories of the documentaries that used to be screened via projectors by the government in public spaces to educate the people about government welfare schemes and developmental programmes.

In some areas, film societies used to screen movies in rural areas to educate the people about the importance of parallel cinemas.

The Karimnagar Film Society is one among such societies, which used to screen world famous movies in villages in the 1980s.

Now, ‘Balagam’ is helping in reviving the age-old practice, with several elderly persons getting nostalgic over the experience, Vattimalla sarpanch Kommu Swapna Devaraj told Telangana Today. She screened the movie in her village bearing all expenses.

Venkatraopet sarpanch Mantheni Santhosh said he strongly believed that only joint families would help in keeping alive relationships among family members and relatives. So, he screened the movie in the village to educate his people about declining family relations and human values, he said.

The director, Venu Yeldandi has succeeded in his task of explaining to the people about relations that are souring and human values that are disappearing, said Varala Anand, a film critic and Kendra Sahitya Academy awardee, adding that the screening of the movie would at least trigger a thought process among people, which could improve the situation.

Apart from Karimnagar, the movie is also being screened in villages in Medak, Siddipet and Sangareddy districts as well.