Story premise: Directed by Prashanth Varma, the story takes place in Kolhapur after the independence. The place had been administered by a royal family until one greedy guy called Narsappa, out of his greed for power gets the head of the royal family killed. He then kills his widow wife and her little son, burning the whole palace they are in. That clears all the hurdles for Narsappa to become undisputed king, who had been unanimously ruling the place for years scaring the people with his inhumane acts. In an unexpected shock Narsappa’s brother Shekhar Babu who has a good name among public is burnt alive being tied to a tree. Who has done it? What could be the intention behind his killing? To solve this mystery, inspector Kalki arrives to the village. The rest of the story is about how inspector Kalki goes in his own way in resolving the case.
Performances: All the performances are believable and carries out their part convincingly. Though we can see the efforts, Dr. Rajashekhar put in to play the Kalki part, his age plays a bit of distraction considering the feats he does. Its a bit unconvincing.
Technical Department: The music, cinematography, art work are a big plus to the narrative. Their efforts take the movie to next level, presentation-wise.
Screenplay & Direction: When it comes to this story there is nothing ordinary happens. It needs a greater imagination to create such situations. But then a greater effort has to be put in to make the story look organic. That’s where the film falters. We are thrown this disconnected profound incidents with unanswered questions one after other that we as audience seem to be disoriented from the happenings. We are lost on what we are looking for.
The ending is stunning, that’s probably because the director wants to reveal everything at the end. But cramming all the vital information in the ending has costed him dear as the whole first half looks flat as nothing major seems to be happening except only the questions are raised one after other without even a single one being answered which makes us loose interest in the proceedings.
The efforts put in to create the extraordinary situations, set work and visuals are commendable. The movie looks fired up in all departments except it fails in the basic rule - engaging the audience.
Overall Impact: This movie is very ambitious one made with great efforts from the all the cast and crew. We can’t help but appreciate the amount of efforts that has gone in making this film. But those very efforts became a curse of sorts, made the film look complex and less engaging. A more empathetic characterization of the lead character would have made us root for him till the end, waiting for him to win at the end. It is an intelligent film works in parts in engaging the audience and rest of the time looks indulgent and disorienting.
Plus points:
Story
Direction
Music
Cinematography
Art
Minus points:
Screenplay
Rating: 2.5/5
