After I've been reading some great reviews about "Kirik Party" over the weekend, I was excited and happy about another good script in Sandalwood - as they're far and few in between - and gave it a shot. Sadly, it was nothing but over-hyped and turns out, I was looking in the wrong place! By intermission, I was left wondering if people were paid to write those positive reviews! Or have the Kannada audiences' tastes stooped so low to accept sheer mediocrity?!
Let's see... The so-called protagonist here is Karna. He is the Robin Hood of Malnad College of Engineering, and overstays his course. However, he does manage to effortlessly capture the heart of his senior Saanvi, who goes on to volunteer teaching Kannada to migrants that don't speak the local language. And when there's college life, there's no escaping the politics and elections in college, either. Not to mention the overdose of songs, in almost every reel. Well, guess they wanted to just come up with a cool college rom-com that the young audiences would relate to.
Rashmika Mandanna, from Coorg, is amazingly pretty to look at and has quite an easy role to play. She could have concentrated a little more on her sound dubbing.
Achyuth Kumar is sadly wasted in a role that lacks any need or conviction. It is always a joy watching this natural performer, though.
Did not see the need for Samyuktha Hegde, either, and she appears to be trying too hard.
Pramod Shetty is funny and good.
The strongest point of the film is some beautiful music by B Ajaneesh Loknath. It was also heartening to see Rakshit Shetty better his acting skills in his last two outings - Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu and now this one. The film also has some genuine moments, and I particularly enjoyed the sequences where the lead pair sneak out at night a couple of times. Rakshit's childlike curiosity lifts the bar, here. M R Rajakrishnan's Sound Design is good, and Ravi Varma's stunts, too. Last, but not the least, a special mention to DOP Karm Chawla.
Rakshit looks too old to play the college lad in the first half of the film. In the latter half, he manages to appears thinner - and younger - which is the case whenever he sports a beard. The teacher Saanvi looks younger than the student, though they try shaking you up too hard, trying to convince you that she's three years older than him... but that's a different story! It is over-filled with slapstick comedy and sad, pointless jokes that don't make you laugh for the most part.
Also, it is ridiculous when the hero's sidekicks have no individual, independent lives. For it seems like the very purpose of their existence on this planet is to keep providing and supporting him 24x7; so much so that even in his absence, they only talk and think about him. One may wonder if they'd think about our hero even during lovemaking. But again, for that they'd need to have to have their own life, right!
Meanwhile, the other Shetty - Rishab, Rakshit's best friend and director again, here, after Ricky, and who is set to wed in the first week of February in his hometown Kundapura - is lacklustre in the film direction department. He may do well to pick up some direction lessons and choose better scripts. For he has the power and the influence to better the industry, and looks like he is here to stay for a long time.
In twenty words or less, there is a lack of a good script here. Though written by eight heads, Rakshit and the Seven Odds, as mentioned in the title credits, it fails to break even.
Seriously, what were they thinking?! Ironically, the masses have lapped it up. And I have also contributed a hundred Indian Rupees to their large collections. Plead guilty! Karna! Karma! This is one party you may blindly bunk!
My verdict: 1.5 out of 5.
Let's see... The so-called protagonist here is Karna. He is the Robin Hood of Malnad College of Engineering, and overstays his course. However, he does manage to effortlessly capture the heart of his senior Saanvi, who goes on to volunteer teaching Kannada to migrants that don't speak the local language. And when there's college life, there's no escaping the politics and elections in college, either. Not to mention the overdose of songs, in almost every reel. Well, guess they wanted to just come up with a cool college rom-com that the young audiences would relate to.
Rashmika Mandanna, from Coorg, is amazingly pretty to look at and has quite an easy role to play. She could have concentrated a little more on her sound dubbing.
Achyuth Kumar is sadly wasted in a role that lacks any need or conviction. It is always a joy watching this natural performer, though.
Did not see the need for Samyuktha Hegde, either, and she appears to be trying too hard.
Pramod Shetty is funny and good.
The strongest point of the film is some beautiful music by B Ajaneesh Loknath. It was also heartening to see Rakshit Shetty better his acting skills in his last two outings - Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu and now this one. The film also has some genuine moments, and I particularly enjoyed the sequences where the lead pair sneak out at night a couple of times. Rakshit's childlike curiosity lifts the bar, here. M R Rajakrishnan's Sound Design is good, and Ravi Varma's stunts, too. Last, but not the least, a special mention to DOP Karm Chawla.
Rakshit looks too old to play the college lad in the first half of the film. In the latter half, he manages to appears thinner - and younger - which is the case whenever he sports a beard. The teacher Saanvi looks younger than the student, though they try shaking you up too hard, trying to convince you that she's three years older than him... but that's a different story! It is over-filled with slapstick comedy and sad, pointless jokes that don't make you laugh for the most part.
Also, it is ridiculous when the hero's sidekicks have no individual, independent lives. For it seems like the very purpose of their existence on this planet is to keep providing and supporting him 24x7; so much so that even in his absence, they only talk and think about him. One may wonder if they'd think about our hero even during lovemaking. But again, for that they'd need to have to have their own life, right!
Meanwhile, the other Shetty - Rishab, Rakshit's best friend and director again, here, after Ricky, and who is set to wed in the first week of February in his hometown Kundapura - is lacklustre in the film direction department. He may do well to pick up some direction lessons and choose better scripts. For he has the power and the influence to better the industry, and looks like he is here to stay for a long time.
In twenty words or less, there is a lack of a good script here. Though written by eight heads, Rakshit and the Seven Odds, as mentioned in the title credits, it fails to break even.
Seriously, what were they thinking?! Ironically, the masses have lapped it up. And I have also contributed a hundred Indian Rupees to their large collections. Plead guilty! Karna! Karma! This is one party you may blindly bunk!
My verdict: 1.5 out of 5.
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