This love- cum-revenge drama failed to connect in Telugu

Ambitious experimentation is a trait which production houses are affected with, time and again in Indian cinema. Moving away from mainstream masala fare, directors too yearn to showcase their skills through strong characters and an interesting narrative, with the storyline attempting to be offbeat.

'Seenu Vasanthi Lakshmi', released in 2003 ticked many boxes on all the above counts. The story was retained from the 1999 release and the Malayalam original – Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum - written by Vinayan. The screenplay was by Tanikella Bharani and it had a debut by R P Patnaik, a popular music director then. The logic seemed to be that since the hero of the film was a musician, it would be a perfect fit for a music director to essay the protagonist character. The heroines – Padmapriya and Navaneet Kaur - were not very well known but fitted the space their characters allowed them to. The screenplay which brought to life the trials and tribulations of a blind musician, who is cheated and plots revenge when his sister and girlfriend get raped had enough ammunition to appeal to a native Telugu audience, which has often been welcoming vof dubbed and remade films from fellow southern languages.

Somehow, the treatment or the 'hero with a disability' drawback to the main character failed to make a mark among film viewers in the Telugu film circuit, even as Patnaik drew praise for an effective performance, compared to Kalabhavan Mani in Malayalam, a known theatre and mimicry artist who was very famous in Kerala film industry. It is consolation prize for the venture that presently it is counted as one of the better made films, two decades and later, as a new generation of film lovers have been exposed to it multiple times over satellite television channels. RP also was seen in other Telugu films till 2016 playing smaller roles, while producing and directing two films which were rejected by the audience.His musical journey which began in 1999 continued till a decade ago, as he composed music for nearly 50-odd films primarily in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil.

The director E Srinivas, who had assisted famous helmsman B Gopal in his 1994 venture ' Street Fighter' (which had Vijayashanti in the lead) made his tentative foray as a director with this film which flopped, even as the hit Malayalam and Tamil remake gave a sound base to its heroes – Mani and 'Chiyaan' Vikram. The leading ladies too just faded away as this film did not give them enough push to keep bagging offers in the Telugu cinema, which had by then become a favourite hunting ground for Bombay imports – all those heroines who could dare and bare and do nothing more, yet attract roles alongside leading Telugu heroes.

Film: Seenu Vasanthi Lakshmi (2003)

Starring: R P Patnaik, Padmapriya, Navaneet Kaur, Prakash Raj

Remade from: Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum (1999)