Narasinga Rao’s debut is an existential melodrama with the director playing a romantic painter, Ravi, whose friends include a trade union leader (Kakarala), an autorickshaw driver, a Marxist journalist (Narayana Rao) and a glib, successful painter (Saichand) whose success contrasts with Ravi’s inability to sell his own work. His neighbour Kankamma, who rejects an evil landlord’s advances, is evicted from her house; the trade unionist is killed in police custody;... see more