Nagarahaavu (Kannada)
Director: Kodi Ramakrishna
Cast: Ramya, Diganth, Rajesh Vivek, Dev, Ravi Kale, Mukul Sadhu Kokila, Rangayana Raghu
For a film that is marketed as the ‘comeback’ of Vishnuvardhan, Nagarahaavu features a digitally recreated version of the deceased actor for a sum total of eight minutes and 17 seconds.
This portion concludes the 141-minute-long film and seems like an afterthought to a screenplay that is confused, badly edited and of poor production quality.
The film opens by hailing Nagarahaavu as Vishnuvardhan’s 201st film but has little to no space for him in the narrative.
There is a dance number dedicated to him right in the beginning, featuring actor Darshan.
Then there is no reference to him throughout the film until the climax where he is digitally recreated (awkwardly, if I may add) as the serpent king to fight evil, all of a sudden.
His character is not given any introduction at all; all that his digital image does is brandish the sword and utter a few lofty lines.
Immediately after this, there a message to the audience on the late actor’s behalf in which he promises to appear before his fans through the medium of cinema.
So, is Vishnuvardhan cast as the serpent king in the film or as himself? Whatever it may be, it seems as if the filmmaker tried to force fit Vishnuvardhan into the film much after the screenplay was written and shot.
The fact that the late actor then became the face of the film is curious and comes off as a publicity gimmick.
The film also marks the return of actor Ramya to the screen. She plays the role of Manasa/Naganika, who guards a sacred pot divested with divine energy and one that can ward off all evil on Earth.
In her past life as Naganika, she fails to guard the pot and is reborn as Manasa. She discovers that the pot is now going to be given away as a trophy at a music competition. She joins hands with Nagcharan (Diganth), a musician, to try and win the competition. But an evil businessman (Mukul Dev) is scheming to take the pot.
Strangely, Nagarahaavu forgets to tell you the result of the competition. The filmmaker abruptly ends the film with Vishnuvardhan’s cameo, instead.
The pot’s fate and the competition are left to one’s imagination.
Incomplete and convoluted, Nagarahaavu tests your patience. It neither succeeds in offering a proper tribute to the late actor, nor does it tell the story it started with.
The film is edited poorly. There are sequences where the actors can be seen talking but the filmmaker adds a background score to mute their voices, instead of trimming the scene itself. Many shots have been repeated to stretch the narrative. The film is neither entirely an animation film or a live-action film. It tries to be both and fails.
The cast is uniformly melodramatic in their performances. Ramya especially is disappointing.
If this isn’t enough, there is also a comedy track that jokes about rape, cross-dressing and assault.
The scenes that actually evoke laughter, albeit unintentionally, are the ones with the CGI snake that swallows bullets first and then coughs and shoots them back into the villain.
Or, the wigs that Diganth sports in the film.
ARCHANA NATHAN
