Drama and Logic

    It is said that the makers of the classic Devadasu (ANR,1953) faced a dilemma while recording the songs. Jagame maya (జగమే మాయ బ్రతుకే మాయ) song had come out very well but they had some apprehensions about going with it in the final cut. Their logic was a drunkard speaks only gibber and words are mostly slurred. Here was a song full of wisdom, and the depressed drunk was singing it melodiously, will the audience accept.  Finally they went with it and the rest as they say it is history. As RGV quotes Alfred Hitchcock in one of his idiosyncratic reactions in his blog this is case of  “where drama begins logic ends”. Guess nobody questioned about the drunk being able to sing so flawlessly. RGV in the same answer brings up some more such instances from Shiva, Satya and Rangeela, where drama overtook logic. In another blog post, “Sculpting Emotions” he has this to say “The Director amalgamates all the arts into one wholesome experience which is intended to create an emotional impact on the audience. Watching a film should be an emotional experience. It should either make you laugh, or make you cry, or make you scared or make you feel like falling in love etc. A director’s craftsmanship is about his ability to create those moments. Crafting a scene is what for me is what purely the technical merit of a director should be judged by.

One Director who brings out the emotions so well is none other than SS Rajamouli. He is rightly called as Jakkanna for the way in which he sculpts his scenes.  In Magadheera, the emotions were brought out to the peaks in confrontation scenes between Bhairava and Sherkhan.

Sherkhan: ఎయి భైరవ,యువరాణిని వీడికిస్తానని మాటిచ్చా , దాన్ని తీసుకొచ్చి వీడి వొళ్ళో పెట్టి నా కాళ్ళకి సలాం కొట్టి పో , నిన్ను ప్రాణాలతో వదిలేస్తా
Bhairava: నేనూ నీకు మాటిస్తున్నా షేర్ఖాన్, ఆ రాజద్రోహి ని నాకప్పగించు, నిన్ను నీ సైన్యాన్ని ప్రాణాలతో వదిలేస్తా
Maansingh: శాహ్బాష్
Sherkhan: నాకు ప్రాణ బిక్ష పెడతావ, ఖుదా హు మే. నీ వొంట్లో రోషముంటే నీ కథలో నిజముంటే నా మనుషుల్ని వంద మంది ని పంపిస్తా దాని వంటి మీద చేయి పడకుండా ఆపు ఈ రాజ్యాన్ని ఆ రాణిని నీకే అప్పచెబుతా
Bhairava: వెన్ను చూపని వీరుల్ని ఏరుకుని మరీ పంపించు
Sherkhan: వాళ్ళను చూస్తేనే నువ్వు సగం చస్తావురా
Bhairava: ఎక్కువైనా పర్వాలేదు లెక్క తక్కువ కాకుండా చూసుకో
Sherkhan: వంద లో ఒక్కడు మిగిలిన నువ్వు ఒడినట్టే రా
Bhairava: ఒక్కొకన్ని  కాదు షేర్ఖాన్  వంద మంది ని ఒకేసారి రమ్మను

It is so popular that, if Lakshmi had to show action episodes of Rajamouli movies in her talk show with the director this was one of them. One testimony is the spoofs of this scene. Even in recent Dookudu, MS spoof says this ఒక్కొకన్ని  కాదు షేర్ఖాన్  వంద మంది ని ఒకేసారి రమ్మను

The point is, even if Sherkhan wanted to send 100 soldiers at a time he couldn’t have, as the pathway in front of them is so narrow, we see soldiers marching in pairs or at the max. only four would have marched at a time. So if Bhairava was serious about what he said he should have walked to the otherside or he should have waited till the 100 soldiers reached his side and started his fight. But everything is forgotten in the heat of emotion and subsequent fight sequence.Thats where Hitchcock's wisdom comes in “where drama begins logic ends”.

Now, all this looks so silly because the scene is so dramatic and  impact is so high, that if anybody had pointed out this then, would have made a fool of himself. Now that I have made one out of myself, I’ll rest my case.

http://rgvzoomin.com/sculpting-emotions/#
http://rgvzoomin.com/my-reactions-to-reactions-70/