A ruminating romance

Happy Birthday
Kannada (U/A) ***
Cast: Sachin, Samskhruthy Shenoy, Achyut Kumar, Sanjay, Chikkanna
Director: K Mahesh Sukhadare

Seeped in Mandya milieu, Happy Birthday is a fiesty, ruminating romance. If one can digest blood-letting violence showcasing the heroic exploits of aspiring star Sachin, the film makes for a decent watch. The promising presence of debutant Samskhruthy Shenoy also helps. She turns out a natural, getting into the skin of her character as headstrong, fiery and strong-willed Anjali, fending for her family, with drunkard father.

Happy Birthday — intended to be a launch pad for politician Cheluvarayaswamy’s son Sachin — however, has Samskhruthy steal the show with realistic acting as Anjali. In fact she is the pivot. Minus her, the film falls flat. Sachin has still long way to achieve starry aspirations. Also laudable is music score by Harikrishna with couple of songs, including classical one, are pleasurable to ears. Mandya langue too adds a flavour of its own to the emotive engaging drama.

Told in flashback (by Sachin to suicidal and murderous Srinagar Kitti), Happy Birthday is about Sachin, jobless youth, whose pastime is bingeing with pals. Sachin flips for wispy, elfin charms of Anjali, working in mobile recharge outlet. Brisk paced, the film sketches their blossoming romance with Sachin stalking her and wooing Anjali over. However, saving her father from near death, and promising to abide to his three conditions, brings about friction in their romance. Caught betwixt his pledge to her papa and Anjali too, to eschew his habits, does Sachin gets her or not?  If so, how, forms the rest of the romance, shot amidst verdant landscape and waterfalls.