‘Malgudi Days’ is an experiment done right

Malgudi Days
Cast: Vijay Raghavendra, Greeshma Sridhar
Director: Kishor Moodbidri
Language: Kannada (U/A)
Rating: 3/5

Kannada films are experimenting with themes and storylines and keeping it accessible to mass audiences. ‘Malgudi Days’ also treads this refreshing path.

Lakshminarayana Malgudi (Vijay Raghavendra), a famous Kannada writer, has retired. He crosses paths with girl-next-door Prakriti (Greeshma Sridhar) and they set out together on a journey to small town Malgudi. On the way, they teach each other little life lessons.

Some drone shots are breathtaking and capture the beauty of Karnataka for the big screen. Vijay playing a young man and an old man puts you in awe, while Greeshma lives her character. Many technical parts of the film —like stills with effects telling a story in fast-forward mode — are neatly done.

However, the film suffers from a longer-than-necessary runtime, and a heavy background score. There is a comic relief track to mitigate the length, but the industry needs to experiment with thought-provoking silence.

‘Malgudi Days’ talks about many things — harassment at the workplace, love, and politics. It does manage to do it subtly. Lest the name mislead you, it only borrows its name from Shankar Nag’s TV serial, and has no connection with it.