The tentacles of medical mafia

Octopus
Kannada (A) Director: P Annaiah
Cast: Kishore, Yagna Shetty, Tilak, Ashwini, Tara, Sharath Lohitashwa

You saw them in Rakshit Shetty’s Ulidavaru Kandanthe. Now they are back in Octopus. The pair of Kishore and Yagna hope to scorch the screen in this thriller focusing on pharma mafia and its nefarious practices.

The bilingual, made in Kannada and Tamil, revolves around a honest and socially conscious man who takes on pharma companies that seek to exploit the ignorant.

A medical scientist, Yashwant discovers an alternative drug to remove blood vessels blocking heart, than traditional expensive stent surgeries. His discovery would be benefical for the poor and needy. However, he has several hurdles to hop through to achieve his mission, for it would eat into the coffers of the pharma majors.

Meanwhile, due to negligence of a pharma firm, the man loses his wife. A grieving Yashwant, who vows vengeance, hypnotises a dog which kills the owner. Besides depicting how money-minded pharma companies loot people, the film needlessly digresses to have Yashwant save a foreign-returned girl from rapists as also from those eyeing her property. Grateful, she pledges to support Yashwant in his mission. But will mafia men allow that to happen?

Sadly, instead of a deft medical thriller, all one gets to see is a personal revenge drama wi­th a medical discovery as pretext. Kishore does justice to his role while Tilak matches hi­m. Yagna is just a pretty prop.