Vanaja (2006/Emerging Pictures DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: C+

 

 

Rajnesh Domalpalli’s Vanaja (2006) is the coming of age story of a 14-year-old girl who wants to learn to dance, can dance and takes a job to learn on the side, but this is India with its caste system, ignorances against women and personality clashes that can get surprisingly ugly.  The dark side of the film is palpable, but the film itself is everything we have seen before, can be predictable too often and never adds up.

 

To its credit, it is well cast, well acted and for a debut film, Domalpalli has pulled off an impressive job.  The film is not totally safe, but by relying on too much melodrama, it does not get the maximum out of it situations and the result is a work that is not as memorable as it should be, even with the different locations.  It just does not stay with you, but it has ambitions and if you are interested, you might want to take a look for yourself.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is soft, stylized or not, even affecting the nice color schemes when they surface.  Director of Photography Milton Kam has his moments in lensing this, which helps to overcome some of the script and pacing problems.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is better, but not by too much.  We wonder how this would play on Blu-ray considering the advanced use of color.  Extras include two intro pieces, trailer, five of the dances isolated & uncut and four unrelated short subjects.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo