Nostalgia white-washes your memory, but if you actually get to revisit something from 25 years ago, you see many flaws.
Watching the digitally restored version of Sunil Kumar Desai’s ‘Nishkarsha’ (1993), I realised this was not the movie I had always remembered with admiration.
For one, the violence was unsettling: I didn't remember Vishnuvardhan being this bloodthirsty. He is an officer carrying a knife: it must find salvation in villain B C Patil’s torso.
Secondly, the two women characters are not indispensable. The gratuitous rape scene of Suman Nagarkar’s character is horrifying and serves no purpose except to provide shock value.
Nishkarsha is a rare Kannada heist movie, with a group of “terrorists” trying to rob a bank but getting stuck inside.
Featuring Vishnuvardhan, Anant Nag and B C Patil in the main roles, the movie is a fast-paced thriller. Vishnuvardhan and Anant Nag are stellar in their police and commando roles. Patil has only two emotions: deadpan and extreme rage.
Nishkarsha opened on Friday, 25 years after its first release at many theatres. I watched it at Veeresh, the erstwhile single-screen theatre, now converted into a multiplex. The experience remains the same in some ways — you sit amid an overwhelmingly male audience — but has changed in some others — they now loudly conduct business over the phone.
Without the glow of nostalgia around it, Nishkarsha is a below-average attempt.