Method to madness

Man of the Match

Kannada (Amazon Prime Video)

Director: Satya Prakash

Cast: Nataraj S Bhat, Dharmanna Kadur, Veena Sundar

Rating: 3/5

Man of the Match’ adopts a unique approach to filmmaking while also dispelling the rumours about the work that goes into the making of a film. This movie could very well remind us of the 1999, Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy-starrer, ‘Bowfinger’. Just that here, the character artistes know that there is a camera that is constantly recording them.

Expanding his own trend of tapping the human emotions, Satya Prakash, the director, brings out the various shades of ambition in this movie. The story is more like a plan of audacity and madness, starring Nataraj S Bhat and Dharmanna Kadur as themselves in the roles of a director and a producer respectively. In the film, they set out to make a new movie.

The intent of Nataraj’s movie is to simply tape the hullabaloo of different situations created by the many characters who come to audition. He gives them scenes from daily life and prompts them to act in an impromptu manner. The intent here is to capture not just the ‘action’ but also their ‘reactions’.

The role of Gandhi or that of Gandhi statue, played by Chandrashekar Madhabhavi, is exemplarily portrayed in the movie. The director tries to shed light on the hypocrisy of the general public. We see an array of people trying to make their entry into the film industry. We see a struggling actor, an engaged couple, and women who are still battling the patriarchy and gender discrimination.

Amidst this chaos, there is a comic appearance of Sundar-Veena, the couple who witness the auditions and unbeknownst to them eventually become a part of Nataraj’s game play.

The elaborate cast of actors becomes jarring after a point. The movie shows promise early on but soon fails to hold onto its intensity, and that exposes the film’s flaws.

The film fails to be a complete comedy entertainer as only a few dialogues are relatable and bring out the laughter. The rest come across dull and avoidable. The few nuggets of philosophy concealed in the Uttara Kannada dialect rendered by Chandrashekar, and the realistic portrayal of the couple, Sundar-Veena, are something that sustains the attention of the audience.