Kannada Review: 'Munjane' hero saves the day

Hyderabad: Film: 'Munjaane'; Cast: Ganesh, Manjari
Phadnis, Malavika Avinash, Raghavendra Joshi, M.N.
Lakshmi Devi, Rajendra Karanth; Story-Screenplay-
Music-Lyrics-Dialogues-Direction: S. Narayan;
Producer: Bhagyavathi Narayan; Camera: Jagadish
Waali; Rating: **
It seems that S Narayan enjoys burdening himself
by stepping into various departments of filmmaking
at a time. But it doesn't work.
Despite an average response to his musical talents
in his previous attempts, Narayan continues to
dabble in music composing and also takes up the
job of writing and directing films. The result is
'Munjaane' - a musical hotch-potch.
With multiple responsibilities on one's shoulder, it's
hard to put together a creatively sound, dependable
script. Therefore, Narayan happens to have written
his script with a lot of 'inspiration' from many past
films.
Some sequences seem to be straight out of Tamil
films like Bharathi Raja's 'Kizhakke Pogum Rail' and
Agathian's 'Kadhal Kottai'. The bus in 'Munjaane'
replaces a train featured in the other films.
The story revolves around Manu Murthy, who helps
his father in his Mysore-based business. Once he
reads a small poem written on a bus and instantly
likes it. He responds by writing his appreciation just
below the poem. The poem is written by Pavithra, a
girl from middle-class environments in Davanagere.
The bus becomes a medium for Manu and Pavithra
to record their emotions. Gradually love blossoms
through this exchange of romantic notes written on
a bus. But Manu and Pavithra don't come face to
face until they decide to reveal their identities and
contact numbers when the rain washes the written
messages. They exhaust all the options to find each
other.
By sheer coincidence, both Manu and Pavithra
marry each other because of compulsions in their
family. But the lovers who are married now, prefer
to stay apart and maintain distance because they
can't get over their feelings for their mystery lovers.
How this knot of suspense in the two protagonists
gets cleared, forms the climax.
Narayan has tried to include some double-meaning
dialogues in the film which may look a little
offensive to sensible family audience, but they might
also appeal to front-benchers. The comedy
sequences in the film are of utter bad taste.
Coming to the positives - it is the quality of some
dialogues which may appeal largely to film fans.
There are a lot of emotional sequences in the film.
Though they are predictable, some dialogues are
genuinely heartwarming. However, some illogical
and worthless sequences follow immediately after,
and turn them into dampeners.
The biggest flaw in the film is the climax. It looks as
if the director who is also the story writer, does not
know anything about networking sites like Facebook.
So the way the climax unfolds is utterly laughable.
The director has made a wrong choice for the
heroine too. Manjari Phadnis does no good to the
movie.
However, Ganesh saves the entire film by his
brilliant performance. He has certainly excelled as
an actor, but there's little he can do with such a
senseless story.
Malavika Avinash overacts, and Narayan, who is
also in the film, has just done an encore with his
usual double-meaning dialogues and bad facial
expressions.
The songs are badly picturised with too much of
graphic work spoiling the effects of good visuals.
Jagadish Waali, who had done wonderful camera
work in 'Shyloo', does average work in this film, and
the editing is ordinary too.
On the whole, it looks like Ganesh's performance is
the only saving grace of 'Munjaane'. Otherwise it is
another average fare.

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