Kannada movie "Naanu Avanalla...Avalu," which has won two National Film awards, was premiered at the Bangalore Queer Film Festival (BQFF) 2016 on Sunday. The audience were all praises for Sanchari Vijay for his brilliant performance in the flick.
"Naanu Avanalla...Avalu" is a biographical movie based on transgender Living Smile Vidya's autobiographical "I am Vidya." Director BS Lingadevaru has written the screenplay for the Kannada movie, which chronicles the struggles of Vidya at various levels of her life.
The movie begins with the Bangalore police catching few transgenders while they are waiting for customers for the flesh trade and Vidya is one of them. When the police inspector enquires her about her life, Vidya narrates her story about how she became a transgender. The rest of the film deals with the flashback story.
Madesha is a 10-year-old boy who lives in a small village. He is bullied by friends for his girlish behaviour. He develops a crush on his friend Govinda. His father scolds him for his behaviour and his failure in education. Disappointed Madesha leaves the village for Bangalore, where he lives with his sister. He gets a job in the city and also completes his Master of Arts through an evening college.
One day, Madesha meets a girlish man, who introduces him to a transgender named Danamma, who helps him to get his gender changed with her associate Nani in Pune. He is rechristened Vidya and forced to beg and earn her livelihood. But she rejects the plan of flesh trade. After she was beaten up and thrown out of a train, she even decides to stop begging and do a dignified job.
The movie switches to the present and after hearing her story, the police inspector assures Vidya a job of an assistant to his friend, who is a film director. In the end, the movie offers a glimpse at real-life Vidya, who is fighting for the rights of transgender people.
BS Lingadevaru has done a brilliant scripting for "Naanu Avanalla...Avalu" and he manages to engage the viewer right from the beginning to the end. The proceedings are fast and crispy, and throw light on all the struggles of a transgender faced at different level of his/her life. The director has included commercial elements like songs, comedy scenes and punch dialogues, but they are all part of the narration and nowhere have they appeared to be forced.
Actor Sanchari Vijay has delivered fantastic performance and "Naanu Avanalla...Avalu" is his show all the way. After the special screening of the film, many audiences could not stop raving about his expressions, body language and dialogue diction. Some said he really deserved the best actor National award.
