SOUTH
Amaravathi is a mirror to the plight of people who carry and the clean the dirt made by the so-called sophisticated city dwellers. Kannada cinema industry has time and again proved that though these are the issues affecting their daily life, still prefer to watch mass fight-romance and masala based movies to such reality biting films. Despite this fact, kudos to the producer Manjunath Reddy for pumping money into such a project and the director BM Giriraj for choosing the gritty story.
Shivappa, a manual scavenger, who drinks alcohol before getting into the drainage which carries the human defecation to clear the blocks created either by foetus that is washed off the toilets, or any kind of dirt that is stopping the drain from flowing smoothly. Shivappa gets into the drain without shoes, no gears for eyes, no glows, in fact, no clothes too. Kannada’s finest actor Achyut Kumar has portrayed the character of Shivappa, the manual scavenger close to the reality.
There is an activist, Paul, who fights for their causes and is constantly threatened by the contractor, who controls the municipality workers including the manual scavengers. Paul meets a fatal end in protest against the system and the power of contractors and officers who can manipulate from documents to people at the tip of their fingers.
Channabasava, a boy from the slum area and a son of manual scavenger (Shivappa) unravels the other world- the world of safai karmacharis and slum dwellers. A college-goer, Channa, who has come up the hard way, documents the life of safai karmacharis and unravels their helplessness, problems and life.
Amaravathi is also the mirror to how people living a sophisticated life treat the manual scavengers. Many other characters in the movie like ‘god’ who is equally helpless in changing the situation like the common people, a dog which is loved more than his children by Shivappa; the officer who can influence and manipulate the higher ups just because of his ego are all the mirrors to the society.
BM Giriraj has not gone all out to just create sympathy for the manual scavengers but also has tried to show how they can take control of the entire city and make the life of the so-called people living in sophistication a living hell.
Though the movie is not technically rich, it surely makes one think and is a bioscope to the real plight of the safai karmacharis, especially manual scavengers.
The mega strike started by poura karmikas in Bengaluru in 2013 and 2014 for non-payment of their salaries for over three months are the real-life incidents. Most of the manual scavengers of sweepers are appointed by the municipality on a contract basis. They are not made permanent even after sloughing for 20 years. If the worker gets injured – severely- even then the contractors do not give any financial support for medical expenses.
Forget everything else, even to this day the manual scavengers do not have any safety gears and have no other option but to go inside on a bare body.
Amaravathi speaks about all these problems but is successful in appealing as a feature film and nowhere it gives a feel of a documentary. The movie is in need of the single screens to reach a wider audience.
Achyut Kumar is the life of the film, Kiran Kumar, Hemanth and others have done justice to their characters and remain in the minds of the people, music by Abhilash Lakra and Joel Dubba is apt to the plot.
Watch the trailer to the film Amaravathi