Raagam short film,Sunitha short film

(S.Ravi Seshu)

Playback singer Upadrastha Sunitha is a household name in both the Telugu States for more than the primary reason that she is blessed with a mellifluous voice. Carving a niche for herself despite not having God father(s), facing the rough and tumble of the industry with confidence, sailing through turbulent times on personal front, raising two wonderful kids single-handedly and leading a life of her own independently are other key elements that prompt Telugus to adore her as a professional as well as an individual. She, of course, has a good number of fans thanks to her child-like teluguness (‘telugudanam’ in Telugu) and this writer is one among them to keenly follow her career graph.

We don’t know whether Sunitha rejected the offers or deliberately chose not to get into acting due to her own reasons but the Telugu film industry lost a heroine. Sunitha is much better than any imported heroines from Mumbai and other cities, in terms of talent, ease, diction and beauty.

“Raagam”, a short film acted by Sunitha in Sri Chaithu’s direction stands as a testimony. Away from the routine costumes, the talented singer is seen in jeans pant and shirt in this shorty that is making rounds on social media. The storyline is as follows:

A singer (Pravallika) marries a co-singer, a jealous jack. She takes a drastic decision of giving up singing, her forte, following some torturous and treacherous comments made by him. She leaves him and lives in an apartment independently where an old fellow irks her with his double meaning dialogues and some womenfolk talks about her late coming in the nights.

After giving up singing, she joins in a news channel, where her college-mate holds some sway. By the way, the director chose the “Express TV”, which is in troubled waters, for this film! Though she gets upset due to some ‘backtalk’ by her colleagues, her friend gets her anchoring role by impressing upon dinosaur (apparently chief editor or CEO of the channel). Pravallika is made to interview successful personalities. She shots into fame with her first interview. Unable to bear her success, Pravallika colleagues try to cast aspersion on her relation with her collage-mate.

One day, the anchor happened to interview a famous singer, whose story slightly resembles the singer Sunitha’s real life. Before leaving the studio, the guest compliments her voice and asks her to try singing. Motivated by the famous singer’s words, Pravellika decides to leave the profession of journalism to re-start singing, her real love. She reveals this to her friend and starts a new lease of life.

The storyline sounds silly and there are many loopholes in story making. Sunitha, however, has done very well as an actor. For that matter, all actors performed reasonably well here. It is not a bad idea to watch the short film on a Sunday.

May Sunitha win offers in full-length films after “Raagam.”