Taming of the shrew, again

Sweety (Nanna Jodi)
Kannada (U) ¬¬¬
Cast: Adithya, Radhika, Ramya Krishna and others
Director: Vijayalakshmi Singh

Siddharth, son of Vasundhara Devi, a business tycoon, falls for Priya nee Radhika, a techie with an allergy towards the rich. To woo her, he joins her company and is projected as a success story, by which time his mother wants to take the company over.

Siddharth tries to pass off two down-on-luck actors as his parents before his lover. Predictably, Priya finds out and breaks up. Siddharth follows her, fixes the “problem” in her family and wins her back. The only thing remaining is to secure his mother’s approval. He gets it too. But is Vasundhara happy with her son’s choice?

Adithya continues his Edegaarike form here, underplaying his role as the son caught between the two most important women in his life. Jai Jagadish as his absent father and Girish Karnad as the schoolteacher father of Radhika, represent both the “modern” and “traditional” ends of a society that is leaning ever towards materialism.

Umashri, the considerate private assistant/secretary of Vasundhara Devi, whose soft side is meant not for her boss’ eyes, is spot-on with her timing. Her elastic face is a pleasure to watch. Like Sadhu’s.

As the drunk actor “hired” to play Siddharth’s drunkard father, Sadhu tickles the funny bones some. The same cannot be said of Sharath Lohitashwa and Tabla Nani in blink-and-miss roles. Ramya Krishna’s famous Nilambari of Padayappa peeps in every now and then. But towards the climax, her character is infused with some “humour” as well.

Thankfully, she holds her own. As for Radhika, she dances like a dream and is presented well.

There is no doubt about Sweety (Nanna Jodi)’s making. Each shot is poetry. Action and dance sequences are well composed and choreographed with the director wisely refraining from succumbing to overdoing things.

In fact, her subtlety is lost pretty quickly here. There are too many songs and while visually appealing, not all of them stay — the song shot at the Bangalore Palace is “crammed” just to show how traditionally pretty Radhika can look. It, however, drowns out the words and everything else. Sweety (Nanna Jodi) could have done without these many songs.