Ninna Sanihake review: Shoddy take on live-in relationship

Ninna Sanihake

Kannada (Theatres)

Director: Suraj Gowda

Cast: Suraj Gowda, Dhanya Ramkumar

Rating: 2/5

A live-in relationship comes with many challenges. Even in Indian metropolitans, couples are troubled by social stigma, career hurdles and financial stress.

‘Ninna Sanihake’, starring Suraj Gowda and Dhanya Ramkumar, is a shoddy take on this subject. Suraj, who has also written and directed the Kannada romantic drama, opts for low-hanging fruits like silly fights and possessiveness.

Early on, there is a nice scene between two youngsters – Adithya and Amrutha – conversing on a terrace. Away from their respective home towns, they share each other’s goals and problems and appear like two mature adults ready to make their relationship work.

But once they move in, they strangely behave like high school teenagers, tearing each other apart at the drop of a hat. This cannot be passed off as entertainment either as their conflicts are very weak. The first-half is filled with annoying verbal quarrels.

The reason could be as bizarre as Adithya not picking Amrutha’s call, despite her 38 attempts. It could also be as mundane as him being shamelessly lazy.

The repetitiveness in the plot apart, the endless coincidences in the film reflects poor writing. It’s a coincidence that Amrutha’s parents decide to give a surprise visit, pushing the couple to panic mode. Another coincidence is Amrutha’s accident, which acts as an eye opener for the couple.

Surprisingly, amidst the chaos, both of them keep dreaming of a happy marriage, forgetting that a live-in-relationship is a testing ground for the next big step.

No, we don’t need a tragedy or an accident to learn that we shouldn’t take our loved ones for granted. All it needs is an attempt to talk it out. The biggest problem with ‘Ninna Sanihakke’ it fails to give importance to meaningful conversations.

This approach is evident in a ridiculous meet-cute scene, in which they exchange numbers within seconds. If only they had invested time in knowing each other, they would have braced up for their problems.

The film’s final conflict seems inspired from ‘Alaipayuthey’. It wasn’t on live-in relationships but the Tamil flick was the first in the new millennium that showed life isn’t as rosy as it seems for young couples moving in together.

Even the great Mani Ratnam had to resort to a weak conflict of trust issue but he did extremely well to build the relationship and forge a great chemistry between the leads. It’s also a different matter altogether that he treated the subject in a balanced manner in ‘O Kadhal Kanmani’ (2015).

The leads do a fine job to make something out of the ordinary material. Suraj Gowda, especially, is impressive with his effortless dialogue delivery and confident screen presence.

Abhilash Kalathi’s vibrant frames and Raghu Dixit’s youthful music deserved a better drama. Barring the outdated slow-motion action scenes, Suraj shows promise in direction as some emotional and intense scenes hold your attention. It’s his writing that fails him here.