Review: Typical trip with twist in its tail

Lang: Kannada (U/A)

Film: Prayanikara Gamanakke

Cast: Bharat Sarja, Lokesh Kumar, Amitha Ranganath, Deepak Shetty, Baby Sonia

Director: Manohar

There are established cliches in road movies. Films that bring together disparate journeys of lovers on the run, friends on a fun trip and estranged couples have been seen and savoured already.

Although Director Manohar tries to do things afresh by infusing the road movie with the thriller, Prayanikara Gamanakke is a deja vu for those who have watched films such as Last Bus, Rajaratha and Ekadanta.

Prayanikara Gamanakke, packed with an ensemble cast, tells the story of a bus full of passengers who journey from Hyderabad to Bengaluru. While the first half of the movie is engaged in introducing the characters, the twist in the tale happens only after the interval.

The placid journey turns life-threatening when a band of men hijack the bus and hold the passengers hostage.

The passengers are drawn from various strata of the society. The director goes into the background stories of many of these characters, which include eloping lovebirds, a pregnant woman, a small child, a grandfather seeking to reunite with his family and a very angry young man.

That the film is shot mostly late into the night provides a new dimension to Bengaluru's Majestic area, which comes alive in the film.

If the film is worth its salt, that's mostly because of the taut script and cinematography, added to a tear-jerking drama.

With the message that negative emotions such as hatred, desire and jealousy can be inimical to oneself, while sprinkled with all the usual tricks of the cinematic trade — comedy, love, romance, humanism — Prayanikara Gamanakke is a one-time watch.

S Viswanath