WHY YOU MUST SEE KSHANA KSHANAM | hguy.blogspot.com

MM Keeravani recently called RGV his "first Oscar," and that got me thinking.  

By the way, in Bollywood, MM Keeravani was known as MM Kreem. Why? God alone knows. Maybe someone thought "Kreem" sounded cooler in Hindi? Now, post-Oscar, I’m sure they’re scrambling to re-edit that bit everywhere.  

So, let’s talk Kshana Kshanam* (1991). It was RGV’s follow-up to the game-changing Siva, a film that didn’t just break records but also resurrected its hero’s career after two to three dozen flops. Expectations for 'Kshana Kshanam were through the roof. Today, it’s hailed as a cult classic, but back then? A box-office flop.  

I loved the film—mostly because someone finally dared to do something different. And MM Keeravani’s music? Pure gold. It was his big break, though the songs were unevenly spaced throughout the film.  

The first ten minutes alone are cinematic perfection—a heist sequence so gripping it'll make your hair stand on end.  

Then comes Sridevi—now fully in her "Mumbai wali" avatar —delivering a flawless performance. Venkatesh, on the other hand… well, another nepo-kid doing a passable job. I’ve seen his 'Bobbili Raja a dozen times and enjoy the song Balpam Patti even today, but I can’t get past his legs. Something about them—maybe the bow-legged stance—makes his movements awkward. Anyway, he and Sridevi’s characters come from different worlds, cross paths, and then—bam!—are suddenly on the run. And where do they end up? The jungle. Don’t ask.  

This is where you see RGV’s love for road movies creeping in. There’s a murder—or rather, a half-murder—thrown into the mix. With both the police and the goondas in hot pursuit, the jungle becomes their inevitable refuge.  

Speaking of goondas, Paresh Rawal is the mastermind, and he’s at his absolute best—complete with that signature one-inch gap in his mustache. The side goons? Both terrifying and hilarious, which was a refreshing shift from the usual cardboard-cutout henchmen. Rami Reddy delivers his career-best performance, while Brahmanandam gives his absolute worst.  

And then, the grand finale—on a train. A steam engine, no less. Pure cinematic bliss, dripping with 'Sholay vibes.  

The film was high on intensity—too high, perhaps, for the average Telugu audience. They wanted their usual 80-year-old hero dancing around trees with a 14-year-old heroine. Instead, RGV gave them an 'actual 80-year-old dirty ole man. And let’s be honest, the romance here was lackluster. Maybe that’s just RGV—no romance in his own life, thanks to an arranged marriage. He was too starstruck by Sridevi to focus on chemistry, spending half the runtime filming her walking up and down stairs.  

The exceptional BGM couldn’t salvage the film’s slow pacing. In the end, 'Kshana Kshanam didn’t fully connect—neither with the heart nor the head.  

 

#RGV #siva #KshanaKshanam #venkatesh #sridevi