Arjuna (Kannada)
Director: P.C. Shekar
Cast: Devaraj, Prajwal Devaraj, Bhama, Kaddipudi Chandru, Ramesh Bhat, Sheetal Shetty
A district collector is murdered. Two officers are put in charge of the investigation. The first officer returns with a theory about a marital dispute. The second officer, in charge of following a subordinate of the collector, has an entirely different story to tell and it is this story that we are interested in.
As a saga of revenge, Arjuna begins with great promise. The film makes an impressive bid, especially in the first half, to fit into the neo-noir or the crime thriller genre and one is even willing to overlook glaring loopholes in the depiction of the police and the investigation procedures simply because of the hope of a good vendetta thriller that the film opens with.
Arjuna (Prajwal Devaraj), who works in the slain collector’s office, is a suspect in the case and ACP Verma (Devaraj) trails him. Initially, Verma barely gets a lead in his investigation for Arjuna betrays nothing. Instead, we learn that Arjuna is, in fact, a rather well-meaning and straightforward guy. We are even given an insight into his simple life and the deeply moralistic universe that he lives in. The twist in the story appears when the news of the murder investigation breaks out. It is then that we see traces of panic in Arjuna and Verma’s suspicions finally gain strength.
Up until this point, the director draws you into the plot well. Arjuna is about to tell you his story and P.C. Shekar announces the interval just then.
Unfortunately, the second half barely lives up to the promise of the first. Shekar fumbles and struggles to keep his narrative together. For instance, he narrates Arjuna’s story in disorderly bits and pieces such that the element of suspense loses its thrill.
Arjuna’s back-story actually reminds one of a film like Badlapur . However, Shekar does not delve deep into his characters’ minds- especially the grey contours of their moral compasses. For instance, it would have been interesting to witness Arjuna’s transformation from good to evil but we barely catch a glimpse of that.
The film also uses stock evil characters like Huchappa, a corporator (Kaddipudi Chandru), and his links with a corrupt police supremo — both accentuate the lack of depth of this revenge story. The only redeeming relationship that Shekar builds is that of Verma and Arjuna — part of the chemistry could also be because of the fact that it is played by a real-life father and son.
Prajwal’s performance is tinged with melodrama, especially in the climax. But he actually fits the role of the moping hero. Devaraj performs well as the aggressive, yet kind police officer.
In its climax, Arjuna preaches about justice and how when there is injustice, one needs to behave like a demon. However, it fails to justify this resolution and ends up with a rather problematic message of the State sanctioning violence.
Arjuna aspires to be a revenge-thriller but does not quite get there.
