Kannada Features

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1 min

The Team Of KGF Chapter 2 Unveils Sanjay Dutt’s New Look

Posted on July 29, 2020July 29, 2020
by Team FC

“Adheera, Inspired By The Brutal Ways Of The Viking,” said the poster unveiling the mega villain

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5 min

Which Indian Movie Has The Best Performances?

Posted on June 17, 2020June 17, 2020
by Team FC

From Monsoon Wedding to Kumbalangi Nights, FC writers pick their favourite ensemble cast films

Girmit, With The Voices Of Yash And Radhika Pandit, Is On SunNXT: A Rewind Of This Entertaining Kannada “Mass” Movie By Ravi Basrur, With A Cast Of Kids

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3 min

Girmit, With The Voices Of Yash And Radhika Pandit, Is On SunNXT

Posted on May 14, 2020May 15, 2020
by Baradwaj Rangan

The film is serious — but because the actors are all children, there’s also the sense of the film winking at us. It’s the Flipkart advertisement ethos, expanded to feature length.

Five Comedies In Kannada Cinema Streaming On YouTube

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3 min

Five Comedies In Kannada Cinema Streaming On YouTube

Posted on May 13, 2020May 13, 2020
by Kairam Vaashi

New-age Kannada cinema has a lot of fans, and the time is right to check out this curated list of old Kannada comedies, starring stars such as Rajkumar, Anand Nag and Jaggesh.

15 Kannada Films Beyond KGF And Which OTT Platform To Find Them On

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5 min

15 Kannada Films Beyond KGF And Which OTT Platform To Find Them On

Posted on May 6, 2020May 19, 2020
by Team FC

A tragic love story. A fun college movie that can surprise you with its depth. A sensitive look at a balding man’s quest for love. Kannada cinema is going through a dream run, and here are a few films from across genres you can now watch with subtitles.

Alidu Ulidavaru, with Ashu Bedra and Sangeetha Bhat, is on Amazon Prime: A rewind of Arvind Sastry's horror-thriller, which could have used more tension The interval point is crazy -- I mean, good-crazy. Remember the interval point of Kahaani? This is that level of crazy. But the rest of it doesn't quite add up. Arvind Sastry's Alidu Ulidavaru opens with two men on a bike approaching a house. They look like they are part of a food-delivery service. Or maybe they’ve got a package to drop off. Either way, neither man wants to do whatever they’ve come to do. Finally, one of them summons up the guts and walks up to the gate -- and just then, in front of his terrified eyes, the gate latches itself. The man runs away, screaming. Is this really a haunted house? Or are we meant to think it is a haunted house? Are those two men really a part of this story? Or are they snuck into this scene -- and only this scene -- in order to make us believe that the latch did indeed fall on its own accord, unaided by human intervention? Fix this stretch in your head and revisit it after The End. Meanwhile, we move to Sheelam (Ashu Bedra), the anchor of a super-hit television show called Kaarana. As the name suggests, he looks for a reason, a why -- which means he is a man of cold logic. In each episode, he debunks ghosts and haunted houses, proving that what was thought of as "inexplicable" can be explained: namely, there is a reason. If you thought it was a ghost, it's probably a guy in the guise of a ghost. Sheelam has finished 99 episodes and his TRP-obsessed boss asks him to look out for a biggie for the 100th. He's such a stud, he doesn't need a crew. He just installs cameras everywhere, waits for the "ghost", figures out the reason, and walks away coolly with another TRP-busting episode. The film gets off to a wordy start, but the television-channel ambience is convincing. Sheelam is shown cutting a promo, which is actually something he would do. There are other anchors, notably a "guruji", who hosts a show on astrology, or some such thing. He keeps arguing with Sheelam: It's stupid to say you will believe in something only after experiencing it… We need the humility to accept that some things are beyond us. He could be talking about those two men at the beginning. But Sheelam would probably say that those men were already afraid and this fear played tricks on their minds and confirmed what they had decided to believe even before approaching that gate. Alidu Ulidavaru, thus, is a horror movie with a small twist. On the one hand, it wants us to believe those two men. On the other hand, the protagonist himself is a non-believer. As Sheelam prepares for his landmark episode by researching on Brahmarakshasa-s (i.e. the souls of Brahmins who died gruesome deaths), he is diverted by events that I won't discuss here. All you need to know is that the show he wanted to do isn't the show he ends up doing. The interval point is crazy -- I mean, good-crazy. Remember the interval point of Kahaani where we thought the protagonist might have ended up crushed under a train? This is that level of crazy. But it doesn't add up. Pawan Kumar appears as a man who seems to be mentally unhinged. His character promises much, delivers little. Screenplay-wise, he's just a conduit, the human equivalent of a courier -- he delivers the protagonist to a haunted house. Something similar could be said about Atul Kurkarni, too, who shows up as a cop investigating a murder. But we keep getting flashbacks in parallel. In other words, we are actually being shown what happened -- even as the Atul Kulkarni character is trying to find out what happened. Something's off about the screenplay's structure. It wastes too much time establishing Sheelam's work and workplace, and it's only at the interval point that the plot really takes off. You could argue that the philosophical discussions that came earlier are important, that this isn’t just a mystery but a mystery with meaning. Only, it isn’t. These discussions might have worked if Sheelam discovered, slowly, that the guruji might be right after all -- but these portions where doubt sets in, they are treated like set pieces. It’s a sudden tonal shift. What's needed, what's missing is atmosphere, a tension that hangs over the film like a heavy mist. I enjoyed Midhun Mukundan's score. He mixes electronic effects with creepy, down-to-earth sounds -- like a razor being sharpened against a belt, or a tinkling spoon. Ashu Bedra walks through the film with a one-note expression, but I liked that his fight scene was split with his ass-kicking girlfriend (Sangeetha Bhat), who's a self-defence trainer. These are interesting touches, but they don't come together in a way that spooks you. In this kind of movie, the house may or may not be overrun by ghosts. But the audience should definitely end up haunted.

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4 min

Alidu Ulidavaru, With Ashu Bedra & Sangeetha Bhat, Is On Amazon Prime

Posted on May 6, 2020May 9, 2020
by Baradwaj Rangan

The interval point is crazy — I mean, good-crazy. Remember the interval point of Kahaani? This is that level of crazy. But the rest of it doesn’t quite add up.

Roopa Rao’s Gantumoote: Is This The Dawn Of A New Era In Kannada Cinema?

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6 min

Roopa Rao’s Gantumoote: Is This The Dawn Of A New Era In Kannada Films

Posted on April 22, 2020May 25, 2020
by Basav Biradar

In more than 85 years of its history, there have been very few experiments in the genre of coming-of-age romantic dramas in Kannada cinema, leave alone narratives with female perspectives

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5 min

20 Roles That Prove Prakash Raj Can Make Anything Work

Posted on March 26, 2020May 19, 2020
by Ashutosh Mohan

As Prakash Raj turns 55 today, we list out a few of his notable roles, from ‘uber nice’ to ‘unremittingly evil’, with several ambiguous ones in between.

KS Ashoka's Kannada Film Dia Builds Its World Very Consistently (Major Spoilers Ahead)

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3 min

The World Of KS Ashoka's Kannada film Dia

Posted on March 17, 2020May 8, 2020
by Team FC

One of the best things about the film’s writing is that I never imagined I would be rooting for a couple that’s different from the one I was rooting for in the first half-hour, writes FC Reader Hariharasudhen Nagarajan

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3 min

Top 5 Kannada Films Of 2019

Posted on December 19, 2019May 8, 2020
by Karthik Keramalu

Bell Bottom, Kavaludaari, Mookajjiya Kanasugalu, Katha Sangama and Gantumoote: Five films that represented the best of Kannada cinema in 2019

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4 min

How Bangalore’s Real Estate Boom Changed Kannada Cinema

Posted on April 13, 2019May 8, 2020
by Team FC

…a lot of that money made its way into Kannada movies and the quality suddenly took a back seat, says director Hemanth Rao, who made the much-loved Godhi Banna Sadharna Mykattu

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5 min

Kannada Cinema’s 5 Hidden Gems From 2018

Posted on December 26, 2018May 8, 2020
by Subha Rao

A moving drama, feel good love stories and touching socials…it was a good year at the movies for the Kannada film buff

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