A mixed bag

This year has been a mixed one for the Kannada film industry. This year saw a surge of new ideas and the rise of young talents.

The Kannada film industry is certainly going through a  transistion of sorts with filmmakers visibly moving away from regular commercial, ‘masala’ films to offering something new and totally different. The new year looks good too with some big projects in the Kannada film industry such as ‘Allama’, ‘Chakravarthy’ of actor Darshan and ‘Pushpaka Vimana’ which has actor-director Ramesh Aravind playing a unique role.

The year began with the release of ‘Ishtartha’ by Pran which didn’t do too well. ‘Tithi’ by Ram Reddy won the admiration of many a film buff for its original subject, realistic portrayal and style of narration. It won the National Award for ‘Best Regional Film’ and drew the attention of filmmakers worldover. It also ran into packed houses at the Bengaluru International Film Festival. Another notable film was ‘Rama Rama Re’ by D Satyaprakash, which captured the journey of a criminal who was about to get hanged. The sharp dialogues, effective music and good performances by actors K Jayaram, Nataraj S Bhat and Dharmanna stood out.

There were a lot of experimental project such as ‘Last Bus’, a horror thriller, by SD Aravind that got good reviews. ‘U-Turn’ by Pawan Kumar falls into the category of a thriller. It also did well because it gave the most ordinary things a metaphorical twist. Pawan’s  last work ‘Lucia’ also did well. Another film worth mentioning is ‘Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu’ by Sumana Kittur, which was based on Poornachandra Tejasvi’s novel.

It captured the life and rustic settings in a village. Another realistic film that won a lot of followers was ‘Godhi Banna Sadharana Maikattu’ by Hemanth M Rao, a debutant director, who wove a brilliant story around a sensitive subject. The film traced the journey of a man who lost his memory. The emotional drama between the father and son got good reviews.

The movies by some of the big stars such as actor Darshan’’s ‘Virat’ and ‘Jaggu Dada’ didn’t do as well expected. Other films such as actor Ganesh’s ‘Style King’, ‘Zoom’ by Prashanth Raj and ‘Mungaru Male 2’ by director Shashank and ‘Santhu Straight Forward’ saw moderate success.

Contrary to expectations, Puneeth-starrer ‘Chakravyuha’ and ‘Doddmane Hudga’ by Suri, fetched good moolah but were not big hits. While actor Sudeep’s ‘Kotigobba 2’ did extremely well, Sudeep’s pair-up with Upendra, for the first time, in ‘Mukunda Murari’ was a flop. Joining the list of flops were Sharan-starrer ‘Jai Maruti 800’ by A Harsha and ‘Nataraja Service’ by Pavan Wodeyar, Arjun Sarja’s ‘Game’, ‘Idolle Ramayana’ by Prakash Rai, ‘Ricky’ by Rishab Shetty just to mention a few.

 Actor Shivarajkumar seemed to have carefully chosen his projects and managed to do very contrasting roles in his projects such as ‘Killing Veerappan’ and ‘Shivalinga’ which won critical reviews. His performance in ‘Santeyalli Nintha Kabeera’, directed by Kabaddi Babu, got average reviews. Upendra’s ‘Kalpana-2’ got a mixed response.

What shocked the entire Kannada film industry were the expected deaths of actors Raghava Uday and Anil. Many were saddened by the way the shooting was handled and hoped such incidents wouldn’t occur in future.