Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu: Out to steal your heart

Hemanth Rao is definitely a filmmaker to watch out for.

June 03, 2016 05:46 pm | Updated September 16, 2016 10:19 am IST - BENGALURU

Karnataka : Bengaluru , 03/06/2016 .  Actor Ananth Nag in a film still Godi Banna Saadarana Maikattu .

Karnataka : Bengaluru , 03/06/2016 . Actor Ananth Nag in a film still Godi Banna Saadarana Maikattu .

Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (Kannada)

Director: Hemanth. M. Rao

Cast: Anant Nag, Rakshit Shetty, Sruthi Hariharan, Achyuth Kumar, Vashishta N. Simha

The cynic inside you may rear his head again and again while you watch debutant Hemanth M. Rao’s Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu . But Hemanth not only kicks the cynic out of you, but his film, especially with its competent cast and invigorating music, gives strength to your heart, which his team has already appealed to.

To put it plainly, GBSM is a well-written, marvellously performed and decently shot film replete with moments that will make you well up as much as others that will make you roar with laughter. And, this is not such a sadharana ( ordinary) thing to do.

Yes, there are moments that make you sit up and say ‘as if this happens’. But if the doubting Thomas in you is ignored, then Hemanth’s writing and Anant Nag’s performance forces you to spare a thought for that part of you that believes in the inherent goodness of the human character. And Anant Nag tells you how to do that too.

Venkob Rao (Anant Nag) is an Alzheimer’s patient. His wife has passed away. His son, Shiva (Rakshit Shetty), who is rather busy with his job, barely has any time for his father. Shiva decides to put Rao in an old-age home. We enter the story at this point. A promotion comes Shiva’s way and he is about to go to New York. In a reluctant attempt to show he cares for his father, before he goes away, Shiva takes Rao out to buy him a month-full of clothes. Little did he anticipate that at the end of this shopping sojourn, his father would go missing.

Elsewhere, a murder plot is hatched and executed. The who, how and what of it, we realise, is not important. Hemanth makes us more interested in Ranganna (Vashishta N. Simha) and his assistant Manja, the contract killers. How the search for Venkob Rao by Shiva and Sahana (Sruthi Hariharan), Rao’s doctor, and the story of the killers intersect and what ensues forms the rest of the film. The role of the catalyst for the meeting of these two plots is beautifully played by Kumar (Achyuth Kumar).

The strength in Hemanth’s writing is in the wonderfully etched characters. He makes them meet and then sits back with us to see what happens. Hidden in the personal story of Shiva and Venkob Rao are moments of universal familiarity: a crisis forcing the urban office-goer to pause, stop taking those incessant calls from work and take stock of his or her life, for instance. Or, the delicate, often undefined, yet intense relationship between a father and a son.

Cutting across both plots is one thought: of finding oneself; manifested in the outward search for someone is a parallel search within.

Hemanth uses the trope of Alzheimer’s disease to describe this search intelligently. And Anant Nag excels as Venkob Rao. He creates moments that choke you with tears as he looks lost on the streets in and around Bengaluru, or as he sleeps with his hands clasped to his chest as a little baby with quick, innocent breathing. He makes you laugh too when he commends the upma with aloo in the middle of an ominous discussion about murder. There is a particular sequence in the film where Anant Nag sits alone, narrating his story to us and this is a deal-clincher of sorts. It was only natural that the audience in the theatre erupted in applause at the end of it.

Achyuth Kumar too shoulders the film at crucial moments and has you smiling in times of crises. Hemanth does not spell anything out for you. There are no raging explanations for why things are the way they are, but he knows how to be effective even through subtlety, partly embodied by the performances of Rakshit Shetty and Shruti Hariharan. We know a love story is there somewhere but thank god, the filmmaker does not spell it out. Well, at least till the end. Vashishta N. is impressive as the contract killer with a heart.

It wouldn’t be fair if the music is not given enough credit for its role in the film. Hemanth employs debutant Charan Raj’s soulful music to carry his story forward. The songs are sometimes quick — one after the other — but they blend into the story so well that it seems unnatural when they are not playing in the background.

Nandakishore’s cinematography is commendable suffused with adequate experimentation with form. Shrikanth Shroff’s editing could be tighter, perhaps.

GBSM straddles the past and the present, the self and its shadow, the father and son, the good and bad and weaves all of it into a rather enriching blend. Watch the film for Anant Nag. Actually, watch the film for Hemanth Rao who is definitely a filmmaker to watch out for.

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