There is a lull at the box-office as far as Kannada films are concerned. After “Mungaaru Maley” and “Duniya”, the surprise hit is “Cheluvina Chittaara”, the Ganesh-starrer which is a remake of the Tamil classic, &# 8220;Kaadhal”. Based on a real life story of a school-girl falling in love and eloping with a mechanic, the original had class but the Kannada version is crude. S. Narayan, as usual misses the essence of the story and fails to extract convincing performances from his protagonists but the audiences in the B and C centres are lapping it up. “CC” may bring in the big bucks, but again proves that direction is not Narayan’s forte.“Satyavan Savithri”, planned and executed with corporate precision is doing reasonably well. “The collections are lack lustre during the week days, but it’s running to packed houses on Saturday and Sundays. The film has recovered its cost and we should get a decent overflow,” opines Ramesh. He’s planning to launch his next film later this month to be produced by a corporate house. Ramesh is also going back to the medium that made him famous, TV. He will be producing a serial for the Chief Minister’s channel, Kasturi called “Detective Drona”, which will star the suave Anant Nag. Ananth, after a long time is excited, creatively. Ramesh has hired a team of software engineers who’re wannabe writers. He’ll also host a talk show in which he’ll chat casually with his guests. If the special episode he did for Jaya TV a couple of years back in which he got Kamal Hassan and S.P. Balasubramaniam is anything to go by it should be a big hit with viewers.
A Meera Madhave Raghava has been much talked about and actor Ramesh is doing a show for the Chief Minister’s television channel, Kasturi .
The “Gaali Pata” unit is shooting in an estate in Sakleshpur before shifting to Shivanasamudra to shoot the climax. Yograj’s unit ironically is being chased by rains and when they stop the director gets uneasy and orders for sprinklers. About 25 per cent of the film has been canned and the director is happy with the progress. Its cameraman Ratnavelu who’s very disappointed at missing out on the State award for “Cyanide” and rightly so. It’s his brilliant lighting in cramped rooms that lent a realistic touch and literally simulated the claustrophobic feeling the cast experienced. “I did not do the film for money. It’s things like this that make you feel like an outsider. Creativity should never have linguistic boundaries. After all visuals speak for themselves,” says the talented cinematographer. Appreciation is fine but awards are an acknowledgement and stimulate creativity. One only hopes the disappointment doesn’t affect his work in “Gaali Pata”.
Just because you’re invited to grace an occasion doesn’t mean you have to heap praises. Sure, Seetharam held families captive with his serials, but Ravi Belagere put his foot in his garrulous mouth by comparing him to Putanna Kanagal and the proof is “Meera Madhava Raghava”, which is a sitcom on celluloid. Technically tardy with a narrative that’s ennui inducing, the film has surprisingly shoddy work by cinematographer Ramachandra. Seetharam has to realise that the paying public is not as lenient as couch potatoes.
S. SHIVA KUMAR
sshivu@yahoo.com
