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Vanaja

2006 1h 51m Drama List
86% Tomatometer 29 Reviews 84% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
A teen of low caste finds hardship and exploitation when she takes a job in a rich household.

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Vanaja

Critics Reviews

View All (29) Critics Reviews
Tom Beer Time Out Rated: 3/5 Nov 18, 2011 Full Review Hank Sartin Time Out Rated: 4/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review Marc Savlov Austin Chronicle Rated: 4/5 Oct 20, 2007 Full Review Jimmy Cage Jimmy Cage Movie Reviews (YouTube) VANAJA shines with its nice cast and a grounded, calm style. But even though I really liked some moments a lot, overall the film never really caught my attention and in the end it seemed too frayed and arbitrary. Rated: 6/10 Mar 6, 2024 Full Review Panos Kotzathanasis Asian Movie Pulse Despite its minor faults, "Vanaja" is a film that manages to rise far beyond its financial and logistic limitations, resulting in an intriguing and quite entertaining production, both contextually and visually Jul 18, 2021 Full Review David Walsh World Socialist Web Site A profound sensitivity to human difficulty and complexity animates the film. Feb 14, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (61) audience reviews
Audience Member Colors and photographic awareness make me gasp. Good movie too. It all works together, the filming, the acting, even the plot. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member A sad story full of speculation of humanity and the ?????? ???? ???????? (Caste system). However this film has not explored the issue to a really deep level, maybe it was because it intended to include more aspects of thinking. Also some parts of the story is kind of sweeter than the true life people living in such a society. and this is why I don't rate it as five stars, but of course, this is a very good work. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member Since the movie has won so many awards and displayed in many film festivals, i decided to watch the movie with lots of expectations. The beginning of the movie with classic theatirical performance was great which was kind of misleading that the entire movie would be so natural. Undoubtdly it matched my expectations until the entry of land lady's son from US after which it was a mixture of masala and art house. 23 old US return muscle man falls in love with the 15 year old poor little girl after she had his baby, highly unrealistic and imaginative. Why is always a US return guy craving for sex in Indian cinemas?.. Very narrow minded thoughts and the reason for he raping the girl is very babyish. The girl is very unpredictable, she does things without knowing its consequences. The only satisfaction is the performance of Titular character Vanja, she did an excellent job and her kuchipudi was up to the mark. I started the movie hoping its something about kuchipudi but its absolutely not. The very small unnoticable poor high cast Brahmin character helps the low caste fisherman was highly appreciable. Overall the movie is amateur show of social enquiry Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Vanaja is brilliantly played by Mamatha Bhukya.The movie breaks all norms of Indian art movies portraying the subjugation of poor by the society. Vanaja is a beautifully picturized story of a attractive, intelligent, ambitious, and a resilient 15 year old Kuchipudi dancer. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Many Bollywood films are obsessed with material dreams, often depicting how a lower caste/class girl can find romance and fortune within the security of the lighter-skinned wealthy castes. This superb production undoes such a stereotype. Material ambitions can only prove devastating to a dark-skinned 15 year-old adolescent who wishes to exceed her fate, although all long within her soul there remains, as well, a sense of grace. Vanaja is directed with restraint by Rajnesh Domalpalli. It is an illuminating Hindi film and a credit to the fine arts program at Columbia University, which sponsored this project. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member A film I'd definitely watch again. The young actress that played the lead did a remarkable job. Great writing that held my attention. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Vanaja

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis A teen of low caste finds hardship and exploitation when she takes a job in a rich household.
Director
Rajnesh Domalpalli
Producer
Latha Domalapalli
Screenwriter
Rajnesh Domalpalli
Production Co
Varija Films
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Telugu
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 21, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA)
$122.0K
Runtime
1h 51m
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