Abhinetri (Kannada)
Director: Satish Pradhan
Cast: Pooja Gandhi, Atul Kulkarni, Makarand Deshpande, Ravishankar
The suspense over Abhinetri — The tragedy of a Legend being based on the life of yesteryear actor Kalpana has ended.
Though the film can be viewed as a generic story of female actors, their struggles and exploitation, there is some resemblance to the life of Kalpana. So much so, you can almost call it an attempted biopic.
Interestingly, the character here is called Sharat Lata — Kalpana’s birth name.
Some characters in the film appear to be broadly modelled after famous people of the film world, including Puttanna Kanagal, B.R. Panthulu, Aarathi and Gudigeri Basavaraj, among others. Had producer-and-actor Pooja Gandhi and director Satish Pradhan invested a little more effort, Abhinetri could have been a landmark film.
Abhinetri is the story of Sharat Lata, who wants to make it big in film world at a time when her family is struggling to eke out living.
While one has to appreciate the efforts put in by Pooja Gandhi, the director could have utilised the talent of Makarand Deshpande and Atul Kulkarni in a better way. Ravishankar steals the show towards the end.
MURALIDHARA KHAJANE
