Catching up
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Now it's the turn of Panchayath to get into trouble. Avan Ivan draws attention
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Avan Ivan Realistic style
The Kannada film industry seems to be stuck with squabbles. A couple of leading news channels are having a field day playing “Panchayath”, trying to settle the issues on air, live. After Harish Raj threatened to jump off the terrace of a theatre if his film is pulled out it's the producer of “Matthe Banni Preethsona” who wants to withdraw his film mid-week because another film starring the same hero Prem is being released today. There was a hasty retraction the same day and a lengthy, futile discussion on TV where the producer of the film getting released today, “Dhan Dhana Dhan” refused to budge. “These people are making a fool of themselves,” avers Janardhan, who manages a theatre in the heart of the city. “With such irresponsible statements the producer seems to be dissuading people who'd want to watch the film.” Any kind of publicity is good seems to be the motto. The fact is that ‘M B Preethsona' is not doing well even though it's an interesting effort. “The film is collecting twenty percent and owners of most theatres are anyway planning to remove the film after the first week,” says another source. The film had enough pre-release publicity but audience apathy for a particular film remains a mystery just as the phenomenal success of the pathetic Hindi film ‘Ready' is. Now ‘MBP' is quite an interesting film with a taut first half. It's about how doubts and deception can mar the most perfect of marriages. The film reminds you of “Beladingala Bale” but director Ravindra develops ‘commercial' jitters and fritters away the chance of making a mini masterpiece. There are a couple of shoddily shot, unnecessary songs that mar the proceedings. ‘MBP' is a wasted opportunity.
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Bala is a director whose work is keenly watched and much awaited. He has a faithful following among filmgoers and filmmakers. Always accused of taking his own sweet time to make a film, Bala announced “Avan Ivan” as a quickie and ‘commercial', an ambiguous term oft used by directors along with ‘ different'. A film becomes ‘art' only when it's rejected by the paying public but is praised by critics. Anyway ‘Avan Ivan' is an indifferent effort. It looks like there was no script on paper before Bala set out to shoot the film. The characterization as usual is excellent and the first half sails along with pithy, though crude dialogues. The second half seems to have no connection with the first. It turns into another stale tale of murder and revenge in Balas raw, realistic style. An old man paraded in the nude for nearly 15 minutes seems unnecessary. In typical Bala style there's a little Brahmin bashing and the heroines are dumb.
The two heroines have little to do. It's annoying when one of the heroes asks a policewoman if her pant has a zip. More so, because instead of slapping him she smiles coyly. Stranger still she falls for him though he's squint eyed and a habitual thief. In another scene a middle class college going girl waves jubilantly as her handcuffed lover is being taken away in a police jeep.
Bala has to realize that films don't run on reputation.
S. Shiva Kumar
sshivu@yahoo.com
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