Ended on 10/21/2007
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VANAJA -
(unrated)
2006 - India/USA - Telugu (with English subtitles) - 111 minutes - Emerging Pictures
Directed by: Rajnesh Domalpalli
Featuring: Mamatha Bhukya, Urmila Dammannagari, Krishnamma Gundimalla
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showtimes and tickets
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 Vanaja is fifteen, bright and impulsive – a low-caste beauty whom trouble inevitably finds, and in this rural South Indian story of pride, ambition, class and pride, she's a girl who can't help but meet trouble halfway.
Sent to work as a farm laborer for her seaside town's grande dame, Rama Devi (Mamatha Bkukya), a famed inerpreter of Kuchipudi – a South Indian narrative dance, Vanaja quickly moves up from hen-keeping to lady's maid to apprentice dancer. Lithe, eager Vanaja (Urmila Dammannagari) is the very image of the young Rama Devi, and the vain old lady can't help but mentor her maid despite the girl's lack of status.
But when the family's son and heir (handsome and lustful, of course) returns from the U.S. to enter politics, and he, too, notices the pretty new maidservant, Vanaja's precarious position within the household is threatened. With class and power working against her, can the vulnerable girl maneuver her way out a dangerous situation?
"A coming of age tale that's engrossing...and absolutely timeless, unfolding against a caste system that sadly stands firm in rural areas of India to this day."
-Laura Kern, NEW YORK TIMES
WINNER Best First Feature, Berlin International Film Festival 2007
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