Tuntari, directed by Kumar Nagendra, is a remake of the Tamil film Maan Karate , with story by A.R. Murugadoss. It’s a departure from Murugadoss’s style, where there’s usually a story with some amount of seriousness within the mainstream commercial format.
This film starts off on an intriguing note. A bunch of friends on a holiday, led by Vennela Kishore, chance upon a sage meditating in a cave. Sure that the sage is a sham, Vennela Kishore asks him for a wish — a newspaper that would appear a day after Dasara, usually a press holiday. A newspaper appears out of thin air and the news items in that edition have something in store for them.
The fantasy element soon makes way for masala. The friends are on a hunt for one Mr. Raju (Nara Rohith), predicted to win a boxing championship. Apparently the prize money and the award will be dedicated to them.
The beginning in the cave, in a skewed way, may be reminiscent of Murugadoss’s own 7th Sense ( 7aum Arivu ) but beyond that, Tuntari doesn’t take itself seriously and hopes that the audience too wouldn’t. The Raju character played by Nara Rohith is an archetypal wastrel who gets shouted at by his father. There’s a doting mother, of course, who will still spoon feed him. Raju plays gully cricket and has never ever set his foot in a boxing ring. He has a sidekick who, again, does nothing. Kishore and friends are on a mission, to get Raju trained in boxing and eventually join the championship.A partly amusing, partly pointless journey to the championship follows. There’s a girl in picture, Siri (Lata Hegde), and Raju has to impress her.
He tries to play tennis and then pretends to be a boxer, that is, when he is not dancing in front of Chandrababu Naidu’s cut out. Just so one doesn’t forget the hero’s political lineage there are statements like ‘My father and uncle have always believed in working for people’ thrown in for good measure.
Some of the humour seems force fit, like when the hero says ‘Darjeeling’ when he means ‘darling’, ‘coffee costly’ when he means ‘coffee castle’ or ‘agriculture’ when he means ‘agreement’. There’s a long list that you could keep tabs on, while the song and dance sequences roll by.
Raju’s inevitable transformation to a boxer happens at the fag end.
The hero’s rise to the finals is filled with slapstick comedy, so it’s easier to overlook his fitness levels, or the lack of it. Nara Rohith fits the part and so does Kabir Duhan Singh as the boxer Killer Raju. Barring Vennela Kishore, the others hardly make an impression.
Tuntari could have been an engaging underdog story or a story of predictions coming true and the challenges in its path. But it’s a potpourri that’s entertaining in parts.
Sangeetha Devi Dundoo
Tuntari
Cast: Nara Rohit, Latha Hegde, Vennela Kishore, Kabir Duhan Singh
Direction: Kumar Nagendra
