Krishna Sudama: A dusty, earnest look at old-timey devotion

Is it worth your time?

Look, if you have zero patience for black-and-white dramas from the early days of cinema, just walk away now. You will probably hate how static the camera stays and how the dialogue feels like it’s being projected from the back of a very large, very quiet hall. But if you’re a fan of old Indian mythology or just want to see what filmmakers were doing way back when, there’s a strange, earnest charm here that’s hard to shake.

It’s not a movie you watch for the plot twists. It’s a movie you watch to see how they handled the lighting and the sets, which look like they were built out of cardboard and sheer willpower.

The vibe is... different

The pacing is glacial. There are moments where characters just stand there staring into the middle distance, and you start wondering if the film strip actually got stuck. It’s weirdly hypnotic.

Kamlabai Gokhale brings this gravitas that honestly carries the whole thing. Without her, the movie would probably just be a collection of people in robes wandering around a dusty stage. You can tell she knows exactly what the scene needs, even when the rest of the production feels like it's scrambling to keep up.

I found myself thinking about The Cricket on the Hearth while watching this. Both films have that same sense of being 'small'—they aren't trying to change the world; they just want to tell you a story before you go to bed. Though, let’s be honest, this one has a lot more incense and chanting.

• The costumes look like they’ve seen about fifty years of service.
• There’s a scene where someone is supposed to be eating humble food, but the way they hold the prop makes it look like it’s made of solid plastic.
• The music. Oh man, the music. It’s either incredibly piercing or barely there. No middle ground.

Final thoughts (or lack thereof)

I’m not saying this is a masterpiece. It’s a relic. It feels like something you’d find in a tin box in an attic. There’s a scene about halfway through where Sudama is just walking, and it goes on for, I don’t know, three minutes? It shouldn't work. By all rights, it's boring. But I didn't reach for the remote. I just watched his feet hit the dirt.

Maybe that’s the point. It’s not trying to be a The Great Love or anything grand. It’s just a story about a guy who visits his famous friend. And sometimes, that’s enough. 🪔