At the spry age of 94, Pushpaka Vimana director Singeetham Srinivasa Rao has made a cheerful film about gold and greed and the environment and music that is also a tribute to his own storied career. The Telugu-language Sing Geetham, out on Netflix after a theatrical run, is packed with gold-diggers, tree-huggers, cursing gods and rapacious humans.
Pratap (Ayaan) arrives in the barren village Kuberapuram clutching papers that place him as the joint owner of a gold mine. The mine’s other owner Renu (Shalini Kondepudi) correctly assesses Pratap to be a pushover. Pratap initially stays on the sidelines as Renu has the only surviving tree uprooted, which causes immense distress to the tree’s avid supporter Gauri (Ahilya Bamroo).
The tree’s destruction unleashes a curse that makes everybody in Kuberapuram sing, rather than talk normally. Even the rooster yodels rather than crows. Worse still, the villagers begin to spout their true feelings.
Unable to leave the village, the reluctant singers try to find a way to get the curse lifted. The solution lies inside a cave protected by a mongoose deity as well as within themselves.
Working with his own script and music by Devi Sri Prasad, Singeetham Srinivasa Rao helms a fantasy that is light and humorous despite its sobering subject matter. A bunch of wacky characters, including a shady doctor, an ineffective priest and a permanently drunk mine worker who has his own signature tune run harum-scarum trying to solve a unique crisis.
Rao has fun reminding viewers that a movie doesn’t need regular conversation to explore its themes, even when they are as weighty as labour rights, environmental conservation and preservation of community interests over individual gain. The dialogue-free Pushpaka Vimana got along just fine with excellent sight gags, realistic performances and L Vaidyanathan’s background score.
In Sing Geetham, the performances and overall tone are heightened, in keeping with the fantastical premise. Everyone is the cast is invited to the party, and everyone behaves accordingly. The finale resembles a pivotal sequence from the animated Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).
Unusually, the female characters are strongly written, with Gauri and even the grasping Renu matching the token hero Pratap in terms of scenes and impact. The movie also features a prominent Telugu actor in a hilarious cameo.
Although Sing Geetham stretches on for too long, with not all of the 137 minutes required, its message chimes with concerns about environmental degradation in the name of profit. Rao advises us to fight the good fight with a twinkle in the eye and a song on the lips.
