Ricky (Kannada)
Direction: Rishab Shetty
Cast: Rakshit Shetty, Haripriya, Achyut Kumar
Taking up a major socio-political issue for his or her debut venture is a risky proposition for any director. But Rishab Shetty is not one to back down as he delineates on the impact of economic liberalisation on the rural mass and Naxalism in Ricky.
Though the growth of the Maoist movement in the Western Ghats is being attributed to feudal oppression and the Kudremukh National Park project, the movie touches on the issue of creation of special economic zones, which has snatched away the livelihoods of many in Dakshina Kannada.
The director’s strength lies in not becoming judgmental. The movie neither supports Naxalism nor dismisses it outright. Rishab has made an honest attempt to present the story of conflict cinematically by weaving a tender love story of Krishna and Radhe around it.
Naxalim has inspired many Indian filmmakers, and Chakravyuh by Prakash Jha is the most recent film on the subject. While Kabir (Abhay Deol) enters Chakravyuh , a multi-tier defensive formation in warfare created by the State and Maoists, and gets killed, in Ricky , Krishna creates his own chakravyuh to save his fiancé, who is a victim of SEZ and joins the Maoists.
One can see shades of Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se, starring Shahrukh Khan and Monisha Koirala, in Ricky . While Shahrukh tries to pull out Manisha from a terror group, here Radhakrishna employs all his skills as a wildlife conservationist to bring back Comrade Seetha (as Radhe is called after joining the movement).
Rishab has used the demolition of the house of agriculturist Gregory Patrao in Kalavaru village for SEZ purposes, and the gunning down of ‘police informer’ Seshaiah Gowdlu, effectively. The film’s strength is in how it handles the tender love between its protagonists. But Rishab could have focussed more on etching the characters of the Naxal leader and on the dialogue delivery by some characters. In his urge to make the film poetic, he has let pass dialogues that come off as stilted and without emotions.
Rakshit Shetty steals the show with a brilliant performance. Haripriya makes an impression as Radha, but she lacks fire as Seetha. Achyut Kumar, who plays the role of a farmer whose life is sacrificed for SEZ, has lived his character. The cinematography by Venkatesh Anguraj too deserves appreciation for the way it has captured the dense Western Ghats.
