Latest Kannada Movie Reviews

This one is laced with reality show as the peg in the plot. Fortunately with just one song, the plot thickens with all the ten contestants chosen for the game. less

Muddu Manase had all the potential to be a good romantic film. The songs have good tunes with beautiful lyrics. The locations are pleasing and the acting is decent. less

Shh.. Echarike shows horror and suspense genre are not everyone's cup of cheesecake. Providing sound effects and filming it in the dark of night, Kandagal & Co think they could have audiences on edge of their seats. It's just quite the contrary. less

The last twenty minutes is indeed the highlight of the film with the viewers feeling choked with some emotional scenes. less

Upendra in his directorial, he simply does not believe in keeping anything simple for the only sake of being different. less

Male has all the hallmarks of a R Chandru film including the extra-long climax. less

Foisting crass and crude comedy, believing it regales, that audiences rejoice and revel in it, has become the norm with Sharan, an actor who is a pox on the profession.

Right from word go risque situations, below the belt bawdy dialogues, gruesome gestures are the nauseating signature trademark with Sharan.

If you have seen one, you have seen it all. Invoking yesteryear actors in the guise of paying homage or being inspired by them, crooning their popular numbers and miming it like a baboon, Sharan simply hounds audiences in hackneyed fashion.

That suffering one avatar of him won't do, in Bullet Basya, he comes in twin forms. One as Basavaraj, taking the film's title, a bumpkin with a bunch of sickening serviles, ogling at the belles and making bawdy banter. The other as Muthu, the innocent imbecile with a heart of gold.

Taking potshots at women in the poorest and pathetic of light, Sharan and director Jayatheertha seek to make amends in the end when the film's female protagonist Kaveri, the butt of their tomfoolery and sexist thamasha, turns the Kali to put Bullet Basya in place.

One only wishes censors as a quorum strike down such vapid ventures than pass them on with censor certificates which are nothing but corruptive influence on susceptible audiences than provide well meaning entertainment. Even His Almighty cannot save such cinemas. less

Have money, make movies, seems to be the credo among money bags. Looking at multiplying their investment, these money bags are impervious to the thrash they foist on unsuspecting audiences.

One such flick that has you flailing in agony and anger is this week's Preethiyinda. Populated with sentimental crap of mother-son, sister-brother, lover-friend relationships, but poor on making a meaningful job of it, director Raju Halagur hounds you with hackneyed hotch-potch.

Insufferable to sit through even for a minute despite its honest intent to drum home the message that there is more to be a decent human being than playing Casanova, Preethiyinda simply hits the pits.

Suffice to say Preethiyinda is anything but loveable or feel affectionate about. Stay away.

Audiences, on the other hand, starved of decent, entertaining and engaging outing, turn suckers, only to either curse a noon ill-spent, or take the easy alternative of snoozing into a well induced siesta in the cool confines of the theatres. less

Hyped by the fact that two Hollywood cinematographers have helmed the project, Anup Bhandari's RangiTaranga almost lives up to the pre-release reputation. That RangiTaranga is truly a Lance Kaplan and William David show, rather than Anup Bhandari's flick, is no doubt.

Marked by sensuous and scintillating cinematography of the verdant coastal belt as also Ooty's snaky mountainous tea plantation vestiges, RangiTaranga is superb cinema in the first half. Everything falls in place as Anu Bhandari niftily stitches his plot to provide for a nervy edge-of-the-seat chilling thriller.

However, it is in the second half, Anup Bandhari woefully loses the plot, while providing the contextual meaning to the mysterious story he has so subtly and superlatively built up in the first half.

This is, however, not to discount the merits of RangiTaranga which is far superior film compared to the chaff that is foisted on a weekly basis on unsuspecting audiences. That new film-makers, deeply rooted in their regional and cultural milieu have no qualms in setting their storyline and take up the myths and traditional beliefs of their region is indeed a welcome trend.

If Rakshit Shetty did it with elan and ease in his Ulidavaru Kandanthe, here, you have Anup Bhandari, weaving a wondrous saga al la yesteryear Ashok Kumar starrer Mahal, or Bees Saal Baad, and successfully having his viewers in a thrall. If only Anup Bahandari had worked more on fine-tuning his script further and liberally used the scissors to splice needless twists and turns while reaching towards a climatic ending, RangiTaranga would have wowed even the discerning and the initiated like the masses.

Still it is films like RangiTaranga that warm up the cockles of audiences across streams and are any day welcome despite their attendant pitfalls having to bow to the dictates of commercial calling that must be made and watched as an encouragement.

Besides the film's captivating cinematography, Anup Bhandari's background score and several of the film's songs are a rare treat in that there is a classical touch to them than the din and dash of remix and furious sounds. Also the riveting performances by his ensemble players make RangiTaranga a pleasurable watch for all. Yes, go and be gripped and RangiTaranga will not fail you and savour the rich Bhootha tradition that it brings so alive on the screen. less

Sandalwood cinema of Bengaluru's Gandhinagar seems never to graduate beyond the done to death insufferable subject of rowdyism.

Spotlighting on the seamy underbelly of a City, once Pensioner's Paradise, now gone to the seed, film after film, seek to strike pay dirt with their own punctilious portrayal of a City, where only ruthless riff-raffs, ruffians and demonic Dons rule the roost.

Appropriately named Tyre, Ganapa's tyrant is a hulky, hungry lout with Herculean prowess who would do anyone's bidding for his two full meals of the day and two movies in a week.

Violent, vituperative, vindictive but visually stunning, Prabhu Srinivas ensures that despite the sense of nausea you feel about the Ganapa's trite theme you are yet held in a thrall by the man's sense of craft.

If only Prabhu Srinivas, who forays into action flick for the first time, after flurry of romantic sojourns had ensured creativity and sensitivity scored over crass, commercial dynamics and rendered Ganapa an absolute winner with the discerning.

Still, stunningly photographed, cleverly sliced, niftily narrated, Prabhu Srinivas & Co ensure Ganapa is a triumph of style, chutzpah, than esoteric, engaging cinema. May be Ganapa, if not for the pulls and pressures of the money bag called producer was left in the capable hands of Prabhu Srinivas could have turned out a nuanced, neat film that what it turns out now.

This is not to discount Ganapa's merit as it is and which is much better product than some of the films that just rankles your sensitive nerves. less

Technically enterprising, thematically trashy tripe, cinematically crass and cacophonic, A Harsha's Vajrakaya is a familiar fetid fare which packs a punch.

Yes, given that Karunaadu Chakravarthy aka Shivrajkumar, looms large as Veera Pratap Simha, a wronged son blessed with diamond resilience, its fists of fury right from word go.

Sadly, what Vajrakaya seek to press home - one's mother is prime, and what it ultimately delivers - vacuous bloodless battles with baddies, speaks of the ill-conceived priorities of directors and their inane matrix of entertainment.

While the fans go delirious, hooting and showering coins on the screen, as the one man demolition squad goes about his destructive and preachy sojourn, you, as discerning viewer are left with a thudding headache, which even a dozen Anacin or Dart would not soothe it.

Full of jingoistic, jargonised dialogues to whip up regional sentiments - Karnataka-Maharashtra, Vajrakaya is a royal ride into risque, revengeful badland, as a son, takes on his feudal granddad, to bring sense into satanic man, who makes widow of those who cross his lakshman-rekha. Be it even his own daughter Lakshmi.

If the film works, despite its high decibel drama and glycerin induced tears, it is because of the three gloriously choreographed colourful songs, and the brauva performance of Nabha Natesh as Pataka. Besides this you need to a die-hard fan of Shivrajkumar to sit through the 145 minutes of Vajrakaya.

It is sad that directors fed on the heroics of their childhood heroes are more into hero worship then deliver a delectable film that is not only engaging but also entertaining meaningfully. That the scion of the Sandalwood's First Family too plays footsie instead of going in for finely etched script that would do him good as age catches upon him is another woeful let down. That's about it. Watch and suffer or go for a good thriller tome and enjoy a peaceful time at home. less

The Kannada industry may make much song and dance about remakes. But, in the absence of original true blue winner script, Sandalwood, has had no choice but to fall back upon the very hits from neighbouring states it roils about every once a while.

So this week you have Kichcha Sudeep reprising the title role in a remake of the Pawan Kalyan's Telugu box office hit Attarintiki Daredi (Which is the way to mother-in-law's house).

Well, needless to say, giving vision to the original and tweaking it to suit the local flavour is a game Kannada film-makers are familiar with. So you have Nanda Kishore faithfully following the original frame to frame while Sudeep plays footsie to his grandiose plans to hit paydirt at the boxoffice.

As to whether Ranna will make a kill like its Telugu predecessor is moot. However, Sudeep can take heart in the fact that his legion of loyal brigade lustily cheered and create pandemonium as he towered tall right through the 151.59 minutes of Ranna.

Marked by rich production values, but low on technical finesse quotient, Ranna has all the trapping a moth of a fan would dream off in a run of the mill commercial fare. Choicest of one-line dialogues, flamboyance of style, derring do daredevilry, and a song Tittli Tittle that has the audience crooning and jiving to it are Ranna's lifeline to have the fan club rooting for it.

As to whether other discerning filmgoers bite the bait to watch the same tripe the week-end after will tell its tale. Loud and ludicrous, sans any logic, but quite emotive in its dramaturgy, Ranna, if not for its rather longish screen time, should be bearable for one wanting to savour the air-conditioned comfort of the theatre be it to catch forty winks, earn a short siesta or watch the high decibel drama that unfolds with its concomitant of comedy, action, romance what have you. Enjoy maadi! less