reachmallya

"Soni" is a film that deals with gender sensitive issues. Indian cinema deals very less with this subject. The women are either glorified or shown as helpless victims in most of the popular narratives. Ivan Ayrs debut film "Soni" breaks that by staging its lead characters amidst the real world. The protagonist "Soni" a police officer in Delhi police dealing with crimes against women. A warm blooded with anger always on the tip reports to her higher official Kalpana who is completely opposite, full of calmness and capability of judgement. They are in power but still are vulnerable and have their own weakness in dealing with the world of men on either side, the criminals as well as the male police officials. This is a complex idea but executed with such clarity by Ayr. Some of the extreme sequences like handling of youths taking drugs in ladies toilet, top Navy official harassing police on duty, high school girl teased for usage of sanitary pads. These are the threads that the film deals with. "Soni" was screened at Venice in the Orizzonti Competition category.

"Namdev Bhau : in search of silence" is something unique, a visually spellbinding narrative so powerful and exquisite. Its a deep and phenomenal film. Like most of us are in search of something that we are in need Namdev is in search of silence. Being a 65 year old chauffeur in the chaotic city of Mumbai he is exposed to noise on duty. Back home there is his nagging wife always complaining on how little they have. All this leading to frustration compels Namdev to google on top five silent places and exploring them. As he embarks on his journey to find the place of utmost silence he is joined by a twelve year old boy Aaliq who is in search of an equally important place named Red Castle which is adjacent to the Silent valley. The narrative is warm, pleasant and has a sensible quotient of humor and emotions. The humor is very subtle and really laughable and some sequences moistens your eyes. Its a film devoid of the usual twists, turns, comical relief. Its experimental and realistic and pure visual storytelling. Daria Gaikalova (Dar Gai) the director, the captain deserves an applause. Born and bought up in Ukraine and working in a theater group, Dar has been in India as a faculty teaching creative writing and film appreciation at 'Whistling Woods International'. The film premiered in Busan International Film Festival this October.

"Katheyondu Shuruvaagide" is a contemporary romantic comedy which rarely gets explored in Kannada. The last that I remember on such kind of a narrative was "Ondu Motteya Kathe". Katheyondu, however, is more simplistic and a character-driven narrative with not so strong plot, to support it.

Senna has his own style of making films. He finds stories about regular normal people and makes it interesting, putting in life and humor around it. This trait was quite evident from his first film 0-41* a docu-drama which unfolds in a small town in northern Kerala. The trait continues with a better budget and a very apt star cast in "Katheyondu" exploring relationships at different thresholds in life. The simple structure of narrative gives a fresh feel to the Kannada film lovers, thanks to the minimal characters and their realistic behavior.

Beyond the "new to Kannada" tag there are a few interesting points that need to be looked into. The underlying problem a lot of us likely feel with contemporary rom-com movies, is the sheer lack of a strong base which brings out the true essence of the story and its characters. They seem to focus more on alternative plot-lines or moral high-grounds in order to challenge the usual stereotypes. The positive part of this movie is that the alternative plot-lines are again rom-com tracks. This seems like a good strategy of catering to people of all age groups. While it may work well for a certain set of audience it may fall flat for another set due to lack of depth and engagement factor in one or more tracks. Typically romance happens when people get to know each other, catching each other's rhythms, share each other's world views, sacrifice for each other. The viewer has to believe that this character is transforming because of the romance, and both people in the relationship are drawn close to each other. Just like a suspense thriller needs to answer the whodunnit part a romcom needs a happy ending. If one were to look into, the narrative justifies certain aspects and lacks in some. It is easy to have these all ticked if it is a single track or between one pair. Dealing with multiple pairs brings in context switches and a pause resume flow even though the tracks are inter-winded. Many a time things just happen like there is very less establishment of Tarun really falling for Tanya or another way around. The much necessary conflict does not convincingly show up but comes only at the end but again dissolves in a jiffy. The comedy has to come from romance, it has to be integral to the romance plot. The film achieves this in the side tracks but probably could have been written much better. The usage of English illiteracy seemed repetitive wrt character Pedro. Not to mean people won't have a good laugh. They certainly will but obviously, it is at the cost of losing something really magical writing that would have made a great difference.

People who have watched Rishika Sharma's "Trunk" will notice what natural performances mean. I had mentioned that some of the forthcoming films will have this pattern of subtle performances with lively characters and a natural conversational style. Katheyondhu follows a similar style. Digant was chosen for this role in the scripting stages itself and he fits the bill naturally. Pooja is a surprise find and excels in her performance in many sequences. She can easily be one of the contenders for best debut in Kannada this year. Babu Hirannaiah, Aruna Balraj, Shreya, and Prakash deserve applauds. Ashwin Rao ends up getting a good meaty role. He Shines in a few instances where he manages to bring a laugh but in certain sequences, he looks too artificial. There is a right amount of emotional sequences that bring out the meaning of love, especially in the Middle aged couple. More such moments could have taken the film to another level.

Technically the film scores merit. This is a visually great looking film with exotic locations, soundscape, and properties. There is a consistency in the visual flow with the right musical notes providing the melancholy. Songs pop up regularly but never came out as a source of disturbance. The slow pace is understood as the film is supposed to carry that feel to make it work. It becomes slow only due to certain sequences which is very low in substance and gets disengaging. This film is recommended for the experience that it gives and solely depends on the watcher on how it gets him or her involved. If this works, it's certainly a great boost for people who have lined up these kinds of narratives.