Convincing a producer to invest in a directorial debut, especially when the script is not ‘commercial’ can be as frustrating as living up to expectations with your second effort after your first has hit the bull’s eye at the box-office. This time round it becomes more difficult to please the audience because you’ve created a benchmark. It’s the acid test in cinema. Life doesn’t get easier but you don’t have to bang on doors. You may even get the privilege of choosing the producer. Every producer worth his ever depleting bank balance is sure he knows what the audiences will like and the absolutely lop-sided success-failure ratio annually be damned. I know a money-bag who still regrets not investing in ‘Sarkari Hiriya..’ simply because he did not like the title. Then again, the fact that nobody knows what will work makes cinema so much more fascinating. Pure passion for the craft does not always pay just like the commercially crass so the risk is the same. “Middlemen are calling the shots. Vendors are deciding what the editorial will be in a newspaper. It’s not the downfall of the people. When the vendor decides the newspaper is gone,” said Kamal long ago to a question I asked about audiences. It’s absurd to say audiences are evolving now. The choice is just getting better. They’re being served better fare. A restaurant cannot do well just because the seating is comfortable and the air-conditioning is good. The food has to be tasty. It’s the same with cinema.
It’s a boon when a good writer can also wield the megaphone ably. The loss in translation is marginal if any and that’s where Hemanth Rao stands out. He writes solid scripts, not star vehicles. ‘Godhi Banna’ was a heady cocktail of emotions, crime and catharsis. The film did well all over, but he was strangely branded as a ‘Multiplex director’ though that’s no longer derogatory in Gandhinagar. He co-wrote the much appreciated ‘Andhadhun’ with Sriram Raghavan who himself is a sought after script doctor. Hemanth is obviously drawn to thrillers, the most difficult of cinematic genres along with comedy. Puneet Raj Kumar listened to the script of ‘Kavaludaari’ and immediately decided it would be his banner PRK Productions’ first offering. It was a blessing for Hemanth because the films Puneet acts in, vastly differs from the fare he likes to watch. A major battle won for a director is when you don’t have the producer breathing down your neck and there was no interference after a budget was agreed upon.
Karnataka, Bengaluru: 14/06/2016: Kannada film Director Hemant Rao in Bengaluru on June 14, 2016. Photo : K. Bhagya Prakash.
It’s rare, but always comforting to see viewers of various age groups, especially families streaming in to watch a film on a weekday. This proves their endorsement of the director’s abilities and a faith in his cinematic sensibilities. Hemanth established that with ‘Godhi Banna’. The chaos theory popularly recognised as the butterfly effect seems to be fascinating filmmakers. “Nothing is a co-incidence. There’s always a connection,” says a character in ‘Kavaludaari’. The one word that would best describe it is ‘Karma’. ‘Kavaludaari’ is a painstakingly written script with an eagle eye for detail. It’s not a conventional ‘whodunnit’ simply because we’re not familiar with the perpetrator to play guessing games. I found the film slightly autobiographical because the cop played by Rishi fancies his sleuthing skills and feels he’s wasting his talents trying to regularise traffic. Hemanth too decided to give up a cushy career as an engineer to pursue his calling. Girls don’t want to marry him simply because he’s a cop and life takes an interesting turn when a kid stumbles upon a set of dismembered skeletons. Rishi starts digging and the fact that an innocent kid was also a victim makes him dogged in determination. Interesting characters like a retired cop drowning his sorrows in alcohol and the editor of a seedy tabloid deep in debts are thrown in. The plot is complicated, not convoluted. The unravelling is painstaking which is why the narrative cannot be termed taut. The best way to clear doubts viewers may have is to have characters on-screen ask them. Hemanth accomplishes this effortlessly, with finesse. The icing is that the director has explanations for questions he may have asked as a mere viewer. It just shows his passion for the craft. The film is a slow-burner. It simmers and sucks you in making the outcome succulent. Pace is secondary when what is being established is interesting. Hemanth has the guts to have a scene where Ananth on a lengthy stakeout tries to grab an elusive fly. It’s ironical when, close to the climax a fly settles on his battered, comatose visage in triumph, as if daring him. Watch the scene where the two clueless cops confabulate and you’ll connect in the end. Hemanth doesn’t thrust any element that’s unconnected. The fact that the protagonist is not personally affected makes us questions his doggedness but Hemanth connect the dots with a cosmic connection. The only character that stands out like a sore thumb is Suman Ranganath who plays an ageing diva.
The casting and performances are pitch perfect. It would be sheer rhetoric to reiterate Ananth Nag’s ability to slip into a character. Rishi is a revelation. Watch the restless, but eager glint in his eyes and his demeanour when he’s around the cop played by Ananth. I suspect the respect he has for the thespian as an actor made it easy for him. Achyuth Kumar is in fine form.
‘Kavaludaari’ is doing well, surprising self proclaimed pundits. It should encourage more producers to back solid content rather than flimsy cardboard cut-outs. Kannada cinema is at the crossroads. The success of ‘Kavaludaari’ should pave the way in the right direction.
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