Badava Rascal review: Fine acting lifts generic story

Badava Rascal

Kannada (Theatres)

Director: Shankar

Cast: Dhananjaya, Nagabhushana, Amrutha Iyengar

Rating: 3/5

The 'middle cinema' is extinct in Kannada cinema. Dhananjaya, with ‘Rathnan Prapancha’ and ‘Badava Rascal’, seems to have re-started the movement.

The difference between the two films is the script. ‘Rathnan Prapancha’ has better writing while ‘Badava Rascal’ is marred by regressive ideas.

Dhananjaya plays Shankar, an MBA graduate with entrepreneurial dreams. He takes pride in being an auto driver and doesn’t believe in working for someone. The director places a rich-girl-loves-poor-boy-trope as Shankar and Sangeetha (Amrutha Iyengar) are in a relationship.

We aren’t shown how they got together. Shankar turns alcoholic when he breaks up with Sangeetha. He forgets his ambitious career dreams. The film doesn’t look beyond these jaded understandings of our middle-class community. Surely, it has people who handle personal debacles in a better way.

Despite the shortcomings, ‘Badava Rascal’ is strangely engaging because of its music and performances. Dhananjaya is convincing in a ‘massy’ avatar. His sincere acting makes you root for him even if some dialogues come across as lectures. Thankfully his fights are placed organically in the plot.

The comic one-liners are hilarious. Vasuki Vaibhav produces another simple yet loveable album. Nagabhushana and Tara do well expectedly but Rangayana Raghu takes the cake for his versatile show. For someone who was boxed in eccentric and loud comic characters, he shows his class in a character with depth.

It’s refreshing to see Kannada films representing daily-wage earners like cab and auto drivers and roadside food sellers. We need well-rounded scripts that have enough scope for the women to shine and not the ones that glorify the male saviour complex.