JOIN USGodhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu
Kannada (U/A) ¬¬¬¬
Cast: Anant Nag, Shruthi Hariharan, Rakshith Shetty, Achyuta Kumar, Vashishta M Simha
Director: Hemanth M Rao
It is turning out to be a season of creative cinema in Sandalwood. However, audiences are yet to accept and assimilate these engaging cinema wholeheartedly.
Joining the illustrious scroll of films is Hemanth M Rao’s sensitive and thought-provoking Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu.
Hemanth had a wonderful theme at hand to turn Godhi Banna into a masterpiece. In trying to blend creative with commercial, Hemanth renders the film a bit disappointing which shows in the film’s tedious length. However, this does not deflect Godhi Banna from its basic premise of showcasing the strained father-son relationship.
Singularly driven to achieve career success, with an impending promotion to New York, Shiva finds in his widower father Venkoba Rao the proverbial pinprick to his ambitions. The man, suffering from Alzheimer’s, needs his son’s constant company and care. Having never enjoyed a cordial relationship with his middle class dad, Shiva bundles him off to an old age home, where an angelic Dr Sahana attends to him.
When his father goes missing, Shiva’s journey of self-discovery and realisation of the true persona that his dad was begins. Knit within this poignant drama is a senseless crime story which acts as a distraction. If Hemanth had adopted a more crisper, cerebral script spanning 90 minutes than its unwieldy 143 minutes, Godhi Banna would have turned magical and classy.
Veteran Anant Nag wows with a pitch-perfect performance. Matching him with an understated and equally stellar show is Shruthi Hariharan. Both make your day in Godhi Banna despite its inherent faults. Rakshith Shetty is just about adequate as the son.
Godhi Banna should be celebrated by audiences. Daring directors like Hemanth are a welcome breed who give a new direction to Kannada cinema.