Kannada Cinema : Piracy ?

In my continuing awe of the Kannada Film Industry, I'd like to put down some peculiarities that I noticed. Im glad to note that, I found some of them very heartening !

The entire industry seems to be well knit (or well controlled ?) in their fight against video piracy. Since my earlier visits to National Market, in Gandhinagar, Bangalore, I have noticed pirated DVD's of all South Indian languages except for Kannada. I have found this to be very strange, for the Indian ingenious mind is always adept at finding the back door quickly. This is indeed a victory for the industry ! DVD's are apparently not printed until 5-7 years after the release of the movie. The only downside I could find - I have missed some recent, good Kannada movies and the only way to watch them is on TV with a zillion ad's or wait for 5-7 years....!

Coming to the better part : While shopping for the Aa Dinagalu CD, I noticed the price tag of some of the new stuff and was absolutely amazed by the pricing ! For 50 bucks, I had the music of about 3 movies. On some CD's it was 5 movies and 8 movies on some others.. all for a mere 50 bucks !!! It was unbelievable ..! I ended up with a good haul of about 6 CD's costing me just - Rs.300 in total. Btw, the quality is excellent and the print job is cool, as well. With that money, I wonder how many SONY or EMI CD's I could have bought of The Beatles or Britney !

What I really appreciate here is that the Suppliers have taken away the need for Piracy. They've kept the CD's affordable and presented a splendid mix of movies for the cine buff to listen to and enjoy - while NO intellectual property is infringed upon ! Sheer common sense and Economics may be... but worthy of praise ..!! DEFINITELY YES !!

A job very well done & this time its for our cine industry to give a strong pat on its own back!

Kannada Cinema : Aa Dinagalu

Rating : 4.5 out of 5

Confession - My recent decision to go on a Kannada Cinema binge was the confidence this movie gave me. Kudos to the director for presenting the story so well. I might just see this movie again.

This film represents the underworld days of the late 80's in Bangalore city, which had the blessings of many politicians, and , of which real life gangsters - Jairaj and Kotwal Ramachandra were the primary stakeholders. The storyline is presented by Agni Sreedhar, who is also a part of the movie and is played by Atul Kulkarni very well. Director Chaitanya does justice to the topic without any gore or any explicit gut-wrenching scenes of violence- a commendable feat indeed !

The contrast between the two key themes of the movie - the dark and sinister underworld and the sunny , happy love life of the two innocent lovers - played by Chetan & Archana, has been blended, almost seamlessly. Ashish Vidyarthi's role as Jairaj is good, but lacks the usual extra eccentric punch that he delivers. The surprise toast is Sharath Lohithashwa who is very convincing as Kotwal Ramachandra - and steals the show with his strong acting skills & dialogue delivery.

The photography and Art direction are commendable too. [They have used only Ambassadors, Contessa's , No cell phones, guns etc., The TV's shown in the background are also of that time]. Music Maestro Ilayaraja gives us wonderful songs, which I have been humming since I saw the movie. The songs are few but are MUST listens !

PS: I promptly went and bought the CD's too !

Kannada Cinema : Lava Kusha

Rating : 1.5 out of 5

This film Lava Kusha was probably made to be missed by everybody. The movie was absolutely uninspiring and had loopholes as big as the Gateway of India.

After a long hiatus (...of a few years) I recently started watching kannada movies again. After 'LK', I was left wondering If I had been hasty in my decision.

Two mega stars- ShivrajKumar and Upendra have been wasted. I cannot understand how such stars can agree to such loose screenplay, story line and pathetic direction. The heroines apart from being Arm-props for the heroes and some relief for the front bencher's - serve no use. This is a tell-tale story of everlasting friendship between two friends and the challenges they face with their 'tapori' gang and their lady love(s). Sayyaji Shinde is as usual convincing at his conniving best and has done his own dubbing.


The music is largely noise except for a song or two. One exception however, is the famous catchy track APPLE APPLE. Uppi seems to go back to his Raktha-Kanneeru memories (complete with innuendo's). Definitely worth a listen, for Uppi fans. If you watch this video , you'll be blinded - If not by Uppi's wardrobe, definitely by the heroines size !

The Plot Thickens.....

Its a difficult choice to pick a topic for my second post, among my multiple interests : Spirituality, Travel, Politics, Cinema, Economics, Photography etc.,

I decide on Cinema, something close to me and many of my near and dear, but , with a promise ( almost a vengeance..) to actively blog on the rest of the topics as well.

Here We Go..... Jai Shri Ram !