Bengaluru: T.S. Nagabharana and B. Suresh, two national award recipients, hogged the limelight on Saturday.
Uppina Kagada (sand paper) by Suresha, with a brilliant performance by Nagabharana, drew a full house. In this film, the director tackles growing caste and religious intolerance in our society. However, unlike his earlier works, including Devara Naadalli and Puttakkana Highway, which were termed too ‘verbose’, this film is more poetic and subtle.
Nagabharana’s performance reminds us that he is not just a director but an actor with a background in theatre. His meaningful silences remind the audience of his role of Ramanna, the migrant labour in the iconic film Accident (1985) by Shankar Nag. According to Nagabharana, the role provided an opportunity for him to introspect.
Suresh focuses on the plight of a girl who visits a coastal village in search of her father. The story, according to Suresh, is based on two real incidents — one in Afghanistan, where a girl travels from Kandahar to Kabul in search of her lost father and second where a carpenter assumes the name of another person of a different religion throughout his life. The film was mostly shot in Male Hittalu, a remote village near Karkala in Udupi district. It is a fine blend of straight forward narration and metaphors.
Art direction by Shashidhara Adapa, good performances by Mandya Ramesh and newcomer Apoorva Bharadwaj add to the appeal of the film.
