Lava Kusa (1934) review - A creaky, singing time capsule

Is this 1934 version of Lava Kusa actually worth your afternoon today? Well, only if you are a massive nerd for ancient Indian cinema history, or if you can tolerate extremely creaky black-and-white prints where everyone sings their dialogue.

If you want slick action or clean audio, you will absolutely hate this. But if you want to see how early talkies found their feet, it is a fascinating watch.

A Stage Play in the Dirt

The whole thing is basically a filmed stage play about Seeta getting kicked out to the forest and raising her twin boys, Lava and Kusa. And oh boy, these kids are something else.

They end up fighting their own dad, Rama, because they have no idea who he is. 🏹

There is this one scene where the kids are singing to a group of forest animals, and you can tell the "animals" are just very confused goats tied to trees just out of frame. It is adorable but also so incredibly cheap-looking.

The actress playing Seeta (Sriranjani Sr.) has this amazingly intense stare. She spends half her screen time looking like she is trying to remember if she left the stove on back in Ayodhya.

The Music is the Movie

The sound design are pretty rough, to be honest. But the music is where the movie really lives.

If you have seen other ultra-early talkies like The House That Shadows Built or even silent relics like Wild and Woolly, you know how awkward early sound could be. Here, they just leaned into the singing to cover up the constant hiss of the microphone.

Sometimes the camera just sits there for three minutes straight without moving a single inch. You could probably go make a sandwich, come back, and the same guy is still singing his heart out at a very stiff cardboard tree.

But there is a weird charm to it. It feels like a genuine time capsule of a lost art form.

The fight scene at the end is hilarious. The kids are shooting these tiny toy arrows and the grown men are falling over like they got hit by lightning. ⚡

It is not exactly Marvel, but the sheer earnestness of the actors makes it work.

Didja notice?

• The cardboard forest that looks like it was painted by a local high school drama club.
• That one extra in the background who clearly did not know the camera was rolling yet.
• The audio popping so loud at one point it sounds like popcorn.