A comic caper
M. L. NARASIMHAM
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‘City Life’ mirrors metro lifestyle with humour as its main ingredient.
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New faces Most actors in this humorous film are fresh faces.
The place is rocking, literally, to rock music played by a band. The weekend partygoers are having a blast. Producer P. Venkateswara Rao found F Bar, Banjara Hills, the perfect location for filming a major portion of Perfect Visuals’City Life. Directed by Sowda, the film is a comic caper with a spoof on the other persona of a mafia don.
As the shoot progresses, the camera pans on a group of youngsters and IT professionals. Their expressions reveal that they are waiting for someone. And that someone is a tall guy with a bald pate who enters arrogantly. He is the local don, Mama (played by RK). The now camera focuses on him. The men wave at him. He joins them, looking a bit confused, as he has never been to a pub before. The director orders ‘cut’ as he is satisfied with the expressions on the Hyderabad Nawabs fame actor. He moves towards the others to explain the next block in the scene.
Most of the actors on the sets are newcomers except for Azeez (The Angrez) and Melkote. Kausalya, Sonu, Roopa Kaur, Mohini Patel, Sandra, Amir are among them. “The story on the fast changing life in the metro with the dominant pub culture emanated from this reporter’s dairy,” says Rao, who is a journalist by profession and a film-maker by passion. Interestingly, director Sowda is also a senior scribe. He has trained at the Pune Film & Television Institute and assisted Krishna Vamsi.
New to the pub culture, the don creates some fun moments that are born out of his ignorance. As the others are having a hearty laugh, the don’s eyes settle on Sofia (Ramya) who is just entering the scene. The don actually forgets that he has come there for a settlement with the two IT groups (headed by Melkote and Chandana Charaborthy of Anand fame). The man who had no idea about love falls in love at first sight. The youth, his victims, unwittingly discover pub therapy to cure him from his cruel behaviour. The director okays the shot after a few retakes. About forty per cent of the shoot is held at this bar, the producer informs. He cautions that the pub is only taken as a backdrop to a rollicking comedy and doesn’t sermonise whether the pub culture is good or bad. “It just showcases the lifestyle of the present day youth in the metros.”
Though there is a don with “international connections” as the main player, there is not even an iota of bloodshed or any gory action, says Rao. “Basically, it is a humour film. Imagine an old city mafia leader falling in love and attending English coaching classes to impress his lady-love. A number of such scenes create rip-roaring laughter,” adds Rao. He has a word of praise for his music director Pratap Vidyasagar. Of the five songs, Rao has written three.
RK as the don is still unable to take his eyes off Sofia. Finally, she looks at him too. Sparks fly from the don. The scene is done and it is time for pack-up.
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