Latest Kannada Movie Reviews

Have money, make a movie. Audiences and their expectations may simply go to hell. Driven by this dictum, Venkatesh Dikshith, who also essays the prime role in Kollegalla foists one of most atrocious films one can ever think of. It makes one wonder how the censors could even sit through the delirious tosh in order to certify it.

Having said that Kollegalla, which revolves around three notorious scums who rules the roost in the City-town, and their infantile infatuations with their childhood mate Kaveri, paints the screen in gory red.

Once again machhu, langu, knifes and chisels dominate every frame of Kollegalla as the trio loot and lynch as a means of livelihood. Actually there is absolutely no point in describing the deleterious, disgusting plot that Dikshith outlines in Kollegalla and that one had to sit and suffer right through its 146 minutes to help audiences to shun it with a bargepole is a Heculean feat.

That one did not head for the lunatic asylum but retained a semblance of sanity to pen these few words is thanks to merciful divinity. Sheer torture and sickening Kollegalla should not have been passed through the censors in the first place. That it has gone through the first filter it is time audiences give it a fitting reply by scoffing at its nonsense.

The film's trailer should itself suffice to give them the necessary statutory warning as to what it portends for them lest they be adventurous enough to troop in at a theatre near their town. Either ignore or suffer should you not care for this piece of advice. less

Dhananjay plays two different shades in the movie. In the first half, the Boxer star plays a lover boy and wins the heart of audiences. Simultaneously, he scares the viewers as a die-hard lover ghost in the second half. Parul Yadav plays a simple and innocent girl. The actress has given good performance throughout the movie. She acquires yet another success after Killing Veerappan through Jessie. Raghu Mukherjee plays Parul's husband and he has given an complete justice to his role. He portrays as a loveable and a secure husband, who truely loves his wife. Apart from lead roles, Jessie stars Sumalatha, Ramakrishna, Avinash, Subha Belwadi, Chikkanna, Sadhu Kokila and Gowthami Gowda as supporting characters. less

One wonders what the director was thinking while making Bheeshma. Neither a rib-tickling comedy, nor a mushy, maudlin romance or even a full-fledged feature that tackles the travails of a rowdy seeking to turn a new leaf is a novel manner.
Bheeshma turns a mish-mash of it all and fails to turn into an entertaining experience. That Sandalwood directors' rumination over the rowdy theme, of which a dime a dozen films have scorching the screen, only brings in a sense of deja vu as one stalks Bheeshma as well. The audience is left with no choice having paid the price but to watch, yawn, or even taken a short snooze, while the film runs through its over two and half hour screen time.
Yes, once again an orphan Bheeshma becomes the right hand man of a rowdy don Ravana, and does his bidding, killing his foes like felling trees, including those who threaten the don that they would expose him. How when cupid strikes and when he is commissioned to kill the CBI perople now investigating the don turned home minister, the rowdy, understanding that Ravana would go to any extent to use him as a convenient tool, has finally a change of heart. Will he be able to survive his stigma as a rowdy in society and how does he tackle the mentor-monster Ravana, forms the crux of Bheeshma. With director Ra viraj lacking in focus and the film any peg to having audiences glued to the happenings, the key players go through their motions in a listless manner. In sum, Bheeshma turns out another rowdy film adding to the scroll of has beens on the subjects. less

The love story is briefly delt with. Vijay Raghavendra manages the impossible by getting the girl of his dreams to fall in love with him. Haripriya, the no-nonsense girl, has however raked up a big list of boys who hate her. When the two elope, it seems like the film is heading towards an action thriller. The unexpected turn is when they arrive at a lonely house on an island. Meanwhile, some girls are meeting unexpected deaths one after the other and the 'ghost' seems to have targeted Haripriya next. less

The film picks up pace and gets interesting with some chilling horror scenes. There are the regular cliches of a horror film, where the heroine ends up wandering alone all the time and even goes for a swim in the middle of the night all by herself. All these are pardonable, because of the background score and some crisp editing during those scenes. But, the eventual reason for the paranormal experiences ends up being told in a rather shoddy manner. less

The unexpected success of an earlier film sees film directors driven into a false sense of certainty that the sequel too would strike it rich. But least do they know that success, sometimes can be ephemeral. What made the film click in the first instance may not necessarily work the next time around.
The case in point is Suni's sequel Simplag Inondu Love Story. It looks like Suni scripted and woved the story around the dialogues and strung a series of incidents to support his premise.
But, than Suni's gamble backfires. The film, with its dialogue heavy, languid and length narrative, only sends audiences on a soporific trip than have them engaged in the romance that he seeks to tell or the homily he tries to drum in.
The film turns out one long drive from Bengaluru to Karwar with twists and turns like the bends and curves that the long trip encounters and bit of banter with a kid sidekick and the two lead pair.
In sum, those that troop in expecting a deja vu experience may well be warned that they could rather watch the first and safely ignore the sequel. less

Rarely do film directors go by their self belief in giving audiences clean and neat cinema. Trapped into compromises by producers they are often seen to give their convictions the go by and the result is there for audiences to see on the screen, week after week.

It is in such a pathetic state of entertainment affairs that erstwhile director Sunil Kumar Desai returns with Re and with aplomb. His nearly eight long years away from his career call seem to have turned the man into self introspective mood as also take on a philosophical mood. This is evident in his beautifully etched and cheerfully charming Re.

Re, in Kannada parlance is if in English. Pivoting around this eternal possibilities Desai explores the very many visages that a thinking man's mind plays with him. Without as much as taxing his expectant viewers, Desai ensures that while Re retains its comic streak, on the surface, as a subtext, on the other, he also indulges his audiences with what one may call magical realism in cinema parlance as his characters flit across the screen enacting his vision of modern day's angst and anxiety be it about love or combating one's own deveils within.

The film, per se, is all about how Papu, who arrives from Sringeri, to Bengaluru, is entrapped into a palatial mansion Preethi Nilaya where the ghosts of his grand fathers reside. With the grand fathers being accursed to retain their ghostly status until the grandson arrives and weds the girl destined for him, they are overjoyed at his arrival. However, with Parvati besotted with him their grand design of having him tie the knot with Preethi, who the shastras have said is the girl he should wed, everything goes heywire, with Papu, himself a reluctant victim, in that he is averse to marriage and has a dream girl of his own in mind.

How things pan out while the enterprising ensemble actors led by veteran Anant Nag play out this romance and reflective Re marks the genius of Desai. Superlative acting, equally enchanting cinematography and breezily made comic interludes sans any of the commercial claptrap, Re is a film for the discerning and those who believe in unsullied entertaining and engaging cinema. Yes, there is no ifs and buts about Re. Just go for it. If not..... Re will see you rue your date with a magical movie. There you have it. less

The film delights in all its attempts to be simple. Even Tejaswi along with another of his literary characters, Krishne Gowda (of the elephant fame) are talked about as characters in the film. The villagers have one accent and then the women who are married to that village have their own! Every minute detail is taken care of. less

Vinod plays an aspiring police officer who has to fight the corrupt system. His girlfriend's father turns out to be someone who hates policemen to the core. Thus, it is the perfect platform for the lead pair to love and fight for each other. It also becomes easy to pit the heroine's father against the hero's mother. What else are villains for? less

The film sees the launch of a new hero, Viraat, who has the makings of a commercial hero and delivers a decent performance. The story of this film revolves around Surya, a supari killer, who hides his personal life, a mother and a differently abled sister, from the underworld. He may be the smart, cold-blooded killer on the surface, but gets soft-hearted when he sees injustice. Surya also encounters love through his journey, less

Dilwala' director returns with 'Krishna Rukku', that is a clean copy of 'Uyyala Jampala', but modified a bit to adapt to the local taste, and the rest remains the same including the soul (love story) and the body (beautiful urban location) of the original. With no unnecessary elements, this one is a simple tale of two cousins with a love-hate relationship from their childhood. The film stars with Krishna's flashback, where memories of Rukmini, from childhood to adulthood and eventually till her wedding day, flash through his head. less

Trust our film makers to make a new flick of films they are inspired. No. It is their belief that what inspired them, if transplanted with local flavour, would work with audiences within. But sadly, Ramesh, who has provided real life incident based films like Cyanide and Atahasa, tries his hand at a suspense thriller based on the Spanish film The Body.
While he more or less follows the original, in that, one could say it is a veritable copy of the Spanish film, he, however, fails to the follow the film noir genre which the Spanish director follows and with three songs too many and other twists and turns, makes his Game a hogwash of a fare.
Furthermore, as to why he imported Manisha Koirala as the woman who would play dead and who does not add any meat to the story is a wonderment.
The film revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a dead body from the city morgue following which suspicion falls on husband who is enamoured by another and has a police officer invistaging it.
Instead of a nerve-wrecking, edgy suspense thriller what you have is Ramesh's way of drumming home the message against drunken driving. If not for Arjun Sarja who does a fair job of his role, the film fails to pass muster as an engaging entertainer. Try the Spanish original and forget this Game. less