30 years on, why we must revisit Chiranjeevi starrer Chantabbai

What is it that makes us revisit a film?

Is it the comfort level we share with the film and its characters - much like the camaraderie one shares with friends? Or, do we go back to the film to feel a sense of awe wash over us? I think it’s a mix of the two.  

Chantabbai starring Chiranjeevi and Suhasini has a certain amount of naivety and innocence usually found in the films made in the '80s and '90s. Chiranjeevi was the Supreme Hero then. He plays the role of a private detective in the movie. When people call him Pandu Ranga Rao, he corrects them saying, “Call me Pond. James Pond.” 

Chiru’s introduction scene starts with the James Bond theme playing in the background. It’s the music coupled with what follows on screen that makes us smile a little. We are living in the age of web-series and standup comedy. So, the comedic acts made back then seem somewhat dead. Even then, I wouldn’t call them entirely bad. It’s just that we have the term called "spoof" for them today. 

James Pond may have been inspired by Bond, but his mannerisms are taken from the books of Charlie Chaplin. Something that Kamal Haasan also tried for in the 1987 Singeetam Srinivasa Rao film Pushpaka Vimana. Like Pushpaka Vimana, if Chantabbai had been made as a silent film, it would have been a better watch. The dialogues in the Chiranjeevi starrer aren’t funny.

Jandhyala’s comedy is all about situations. The one where Chiru and Allu Aravind come face to face for a fight scene in the beginning set a precedent in the amusing world of action sequences in Telugu cinema. It’s the father of Hrudaya Kaleyam’s fight scenes. Aravind is hired to keep Chiru’s senses in check so that Chiru is alert all the time. Do you now get why Pandu Ranga Rao calls himself James Pond? He is intelligent and walks around with a heart of wit and gold.

The title represents the key character of the movie. James Pond goes on a hunt for a man nicknamed Chantabbai. The only other significant event that takes place in the story is linked to a murder mystery in which Suhasini gets involved. Suhasini plays a telephone device cleaner who falls in love with Chiru over a series of meetings. Take the two events, and you’ll get a crisp short film. A running gag in the latter half involves Sri Lakshmi and her penchant for poetry. Such comedy tracks won’t work now.

Filmmakers don’t consider them as a necessary ingredient anymore. We do have Ali, Brahmanandam, and others to keep giving us jokes in way or another.

But, there’s been a shift in presenting humorous episodes. What’s the use of development if we stick to the same rules 30 years later, too, right? Watching Chantabbai in 2016 will be a totally different experience.

We’ll laugh at the stupidity of some scenes; titles like "telephone device cleaner" may leave our mouths wide open in wonderment; skip many of those songs, and wonder aloud: What in the world went through the minds of Chiru and Aravind during those fight scenes?

Still, the movie won’t disappoint the Pokémon generation.