Anna Bond

Anna Bond digs violence better

Kannada (U/A)
Cast: Puneeth and others
Director: Soori

Bangalore is under the grip of utter lawlessness. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is picked and taken to la la land, pain, horror and all. Girls are used and disposed of, just like the disposable syringes. Then, things begin to change. Rowdies/ anti-social elements are picked off the streets and thrown back into society, tonsured and bereft of coherent thinking. All are bound by a common fear: Anna Bond.

Soon, the TV channels, the police and ‘experts’ are hot on this mystery man’s trail. Among them, a film director who wears his ‘Kannada’ heart on his sleeve expresses interest in making a film on Anna Bond. Lo! he is granted his wish in the most bizarre way possible. It is flashback time and Anna Bond obliges the director ...

Anna Bond comes with a loud bang of expectation. The Skeleton Bike a la Ghost Rider, the means-business look, the lean, mean ‘six pack’ body and the cool swagger where necessary – Appu is a dream package. Priyamani tries keeping up with him but Nidhi Subbaiah, reduced to a caricature, is really given a raw deal. By the end of the film, both the girls are nothing but bimbettes. Fine actors Jackie Shroff and Avinash make up the numbers.

Rangayana Raghu and Ninasam Sathish provide initial comic relief, but that’s it. True to what’s now becoming tradition, Puneet and Soori embark on a very violent journey together - one determined to carry his father’s legacy forward and the other, perhaps, to deconstruct his hero’s set image.
So, out goes coherence in a scrambled up-at-the-last-moment plot and in comes a new level of vulgar violence (unheard of in films from the Rajkumar family stables for quite some time), aided by some chak-a-chak camerawork by Satya Hegde and fights carefully choreographed by Ravi Varma and Different Danny. Imran Sardhariya’s steps are interesting; some thought has been spared for costume designing as well. Adapa’s artwork is commendable, particularly the claustrophobic Den of Death. 

There’s still a possibility of Appu turning “desi” Bond, like his illustrious father – under Soori’s direction, romancing and fighting across pristine locales of Karnataka. Any takers?