NOORU JANMAKU - Kannada Movie Review

DIRECTOR: Nagathihalli Chandrashekar

ACTORS: Santosh, Aindrita Ray, Sharan, Adarsha Balakrishna, Bhavya

Kannada director Nagathihalli Chandrashekar is bound by personal beliefs not to make a film without adding a pet intellectual theme of his own. So, a love story gets mixed up with global recession (quite late in the day). The superficial smattering of job loss and financial crisis in a posh setting does not help the film anyway.

The protagonist is an architect, who reluctantly hires a female ‘right-hand.’ She turns out to be the backbone of his business as it prospers. The ‘work, work and more work’ philosophy means that at the end of the three-year-contract, our hero does not even know where she lives or her birthday. Perhaps her job application and contract letters were blank. When it is time for her to leave, he falls in love with her. She promptly introduces him to her fiancee and leaves.

Because of the recession and her absence, and more importantly due to the necessity of the story, his business begins to sink. He goes to Macau and finds himself competing against her in a contest that will make or break his career. As required in such a situation, the fiancee of the girl begins to show negative shades.

This kannada film is full of unwanted scenes. One prime example is where the two architects present a construction model to Karibasavaiah. Santosh’s character is made to act rhetorically in some scenes. The few good scenes present are not enough to make this a must-watch kanada film.

Santosh in the first lead role of his career would normally be considered the weakest link. But he manages to give a good performance and comes out as the best bet. On the music front, only the title song borrowed from Nagathihalli’s America America shows sings of becoming a hit. The background score tries to force the audience to laugh and fails. The camera work stands in good stead. Free download kannada film songs here.