Kannada Review: 'Sankranthi' is boring

Hyderabad: Film: 'Sankranthi'; Cast: Gururaj,
Roopashri, Sreenivasa Murthy, Shankar Aswath,
Master Hirannaiah, Bhavya, Vijaya Kashi, Mandya
Ramesh, B.V. Radha, Mallesh, Shankara Patil,
Skanda; Screenplay-Director: Mussanje Mahesh;
Producer and Story: RS Gowda; Music: Sreedhar
Sambhram; Camera: Cinetech Soori; Dialogues: BA
Madhu; Rating: *
'Sankranthi', produced by RS Gowda, should have
been made nearly four or five decades ago as the
storytelling pattern, mannerisms of artists, technical
work and even the music compositions remind you
of the films of the 1960s and 1970s.
'Sankranthi' ends up as 150 minutes of unbearable
torture. Everything starting from the story,
narrative, song picturisation and dialogue delivery is
old-fashioned. The so-called comedy sequences are
just buffoonery and end up irritating the viewer.
Sadly, it is poorly made despite the presence of a
large number of artists. Also, its illogical
presentation has many loopholes.
In the late 1990s, Gowda made a sentimental rural
flick titled as 'Thavarige Baa Thangi', which went on
to become a big hit. In the last few years, Gowda
has been heaping on such sentimental stuff to the
Kannada audience regularly, and failing in his
attempts continuously.
He writes his own stories with a number of
situations looking similar to what was found in
'Thavarige Baa Thangi'. But in 'Sankranthi', he has
moved a step ahead and has taken inspiration from
several Kannada films including 'Ondhaagonaa Baa'
and 'Nanjundi Kalyana'.
There are too many major mistakes in the film to
add up to the viewers' woes. For some of the film's
portions, which should have been shot abroad, the
producer has shown courage to shoot those
sequences in some landmark locales like the Nice
Road in Bengaluru. It is easily identifiable.
Except for the picturisation of the songs and a few
exterior sequences shot in Bangkok, the other
sequences shot in a city like Bengaluru is easily
identifiable to even outsiders. And there are many
reactions of the artists which are cut and pasted a
number of times for some important sequences,
which make them repetitive.
The story is about Surya Prakash and Bhoomika,
who meet each other in Bangkok, where they start
loving each other after some initial hiccups. They
carry sweet memories of their relationship.
Surya returns to India where he learns that his
mother is separated from her kith and kin because
of her love marriage with his father. Surya wants to
unite the two warring families separated for more
than two decades. He goes to a village where his
mother's close relatives live in a big house - all
united and ready to strike if their family is at stake.
He wins the hearts of his maternal family members.
Meanwhile, Bhoomika being the daughter of his
mother's elder brother comes to the village along
with her father to join the big family. When
everything is running smoothly for Surya, who also
gets a nod to marry Bhoomika, he faces a big
problem when some of the family members refuse
to forget the past.
They continue with their hostility towards their
sister who had eloped with her lover some two
decades ago. How this conflict is resolved forms the
rest of the story.
Gururaj, the son of talented actor Jaggesh has to
learn a lot about acting. But a film like 'Sankranthi',
where the story writer and director have made
several crucial mistakes, hardly leaves any scope for
him to perform.
Roopashri is lost in this mindless film, though she
adds some glamour quotient.
All the veteran actors have either overacted or have
just repeated some inane dialogues and
mannerisms which looked good only in the 1970s.
Cinetech Soori's camera work is just average, while
'Nenape nenapaayithu' is a good song composition
from Sreedhar Sambhram.
The film is too lengthy and really needed some
sharp cuts.
Movie critics had to bear with a film like
'Sankranthi', but the audience is suggested to keep a
safe distance from theatres screening the film.

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