JOIN USKarnataka Ayodhyepuram
Kannada (A) ***
Director: V Lava
Cast: Rakesh Adiga, Nayana and others
History is replete with trivial instances launching a cascade of irreversible events that shaped the future of millenia to come. It is a given that most star-crossed love stories come under this category. And so. Prakasha alias Pakki and Mamtaz fill in the shoes of the inevitable movers and shakers of events in Karnataka Ayodhyepuram.
Pakki is the typical college-going tapori who’s smitten by Mamtaz, a fellow student. Mamtaz, though doesn't care for any of his antics. She even agrees to get married and Pakki is heartbroken enough to get her initials tattooed inside his lip and get high on ganja. She sees this and it's time for romance... till hell-breaking is imminent and the lovers elope. To a fate worse than death.
The Babri Masjid dispute is mirrored in the film almost throughout. Yet, amidst all the hectic politicking that takes place in the film, the love story, however skewed it might appear, keeps the whole plot afloat.
But close to climax, the film is a complete gore-fest, digging the horror out from the deepest depths of even the most cynical heart.
Rakesh Adiga steals the show. As an innocent boy prone to the slightest manipulation who’s then a victim of circumstances, he comes up with a credible performance. Matching him is Nayana, whose diction, dressing and gait are all constant with her character, if only she could have hid the tattoo on her bicep.
William David’s camerawork is not in consonance with the only “true” duet of the film but is fine elsewhere.
An old story, Karnataka Ayodhyepuram, nevertheless catches the eye for the same and performance by the lead actors with good support from the ensemble.