Manam

A man and his wife die in an accident, leaving a small son. Years later that son is grown, realises his parents have been reborn in other bodies, and sets out to find them. The narrative turns between three generations and three periods: the 1920s, the 1980s and the present. Vikram Kumar directs. Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya are in the cast: in life, grandfather, father and son. That casting is the event. Three generations of the best known family in Telugu cinema appear in one film, and each plays across the others' generations, so the father can play his son and the son his grandfather. It was Akkineni Nageswara Rao's last film; he died shortly after shooting finished. Reincarnation is not new in Indian cinema, but this film builds it through a family tree and deliberately complicates the timeline. The register is not melodrama. It is largely light and romantic, which balances the weight of the subject. It did well both commercially and critically in Telugu cinema and was among the most discussed films of its year. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian fantasy romance and narratives built on time. Who it is not for: the rules are not internally consistent and the explanations pile up at the end, and without knowing the family the casting loses its meaning.