Chowka (Kannada)
Director: Tharun Sudhir
Cast: Prem, Diganth, Vijay Raghavendra, Prajwal Devaraj, Aindrita Ray, Priyamani, Deepa Sannidhi, Bhavana Menon, Chikkanna, Sharath Lohitashwa, Avinash, Kashinath
Watching Tharun Sudhir’s 178-minute long directorial debut and Dwarkish’s production, Chowka , feels like you are watching two different films fused into one. This is not just because of the sheer length of the film or because there are four lead characters but because the post-interval half is drastically different from the first half.
Chowka would have worked even if these two portions completed or complemented each other. But what begins promisingly soon descends into an over-the-top vigilante film, one that negates the novelty established by the first two hours of screen time.
Straddling four different time periods and socio-political contexts, Chowka begins with the stories of four heroes who reach the same predicament across time:‘Hakki’ Gopal (Prem Kumar), aspiring gangster in Bangalore in 1986, Krishna (Diganth), a student in Mysore in 1995, Surya (Vijay Raghavendra), a restaurant-owner in Mangalore in 2000, and Anwar (Prajwal Devaraj), a travel guide in Bijapur in 2007. All their stories are narrated from the perspective of their friend Manjunath (Chikkanna).
One is willing to believe the bewildering story Manjunath narrates about these four friends of his, who across a span of 22 years seem to have witnessed the same fate each. In other words, Manjunath’s story is ripe with cinematic potential and Tharun’s narration hooks you to the screen, at least initially.
Ironically, the film-maker does not struggle with juggling four different time periods and locations. Instead, he seems to struggle in the second half when all four characters are in one place and in one time period. Here, it seems as if he has run out of ideas. After setting expectations so high with the first half, leading up to the impending meeting of the four characters, each with their unique sensibilities, Tharun disappointingly makes the second half a ‘message’ film with long and heavy monologues about systemic corruption, change and patriotism.
The performances of all four actors and their co-leads: Aindrita Ray, Bhavana Menon, Deepa Sannidhi and Priyamani are noteworthy.
Tharun also manages to pack in a lot of details in each time period: the walkmans in the 1990s, the long, black, bulky cellphones in the early 200s, the iconic films of each time period etc. If only, the good writing and cinema reflected in the first half extended to the second too.
