Some people refuse to grow up. They dwell in a cocoon totally disconnected from the outside world that’s evolving constantly . Change is not only about the rapid strides in technology but the resultant pressures on emotional equations. There is a lack of introspection and complacence sets in when you rely on the opinion of your coterie . For some change is not constant but perceived as a constraint to a self induced level of comfort that they refuse to emerge from. Exactly three decades ago, Upendra appeared in a cameo in ‘Anantara Avantara’ directed by his guru Kashinath. He played ‘Kamadeva’ and in his latest screen avatar purveys condoms to friends who approach him for help with their love life. By the way he forcefully mentions the brand name in a close-up. I’d love to know if he was paid separately for plugging the product just like the heroine in an embarrassing, unconnected sequence that promotes an acne erasing cream.
Totally unconnected with the film industry Upendra has clawed his way to the top. After assisting Kashinath he made his directorial debut with ‘Tarle Nanna Maga’ which was on the lines of his guru’s genre. He moved to surreptitiously remaking Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ‘Khamosh’ right from translating the title to ‘Shhh’. He was a little surprised when I mentioned this to him once because most people are unaware. “But I changed a few things,” he murmured in defence, like most plagiarists do. I liked the fact that he took it in his stride when I mentioned that I did not think much of his directorial abilities and oeuvre save ‘Om’. Not even ‘A’ he asked, and I said especially ‘A’. I told him I disliked filmmakers who categorised women into stereotypes, and I must mention he did not treat me with disdain after what his fans would consider I said as blasphemy. There were rumours mentioning that ‘A’, about an actress who leaves him high and dry after attaining success was autobiographical. There have been movies made with this theme over the years in other languages but Upendra’s narrative, more hallucinatory and cathartic connected with a section of the audience. Not much has changed over the years. He realised that acting was more lucrative and less taxing, mentally. A few stray successes transported him to a comfort zone even as fans urged him to wield the megaphone again. He shone briefly in Telugu too. It took ten years for him to make a directorial redux and nothing had changed. Uppi was still catering to his faithful following with his brand of loud, offensive and misogynistic brand of cinema. The recent past has not been kind to him till ‘I Love You’ came along.
The R.Chandru-Upendra collaboration is one of the two desperate people badly in need of a success. Chandru has written a plot for Uppi keeping his fans in mind but not deviating too much from his comfort zone of characters dwelling in the past, whining about lost love. The two seem to have brainstormed about what will work and have cooked up a concoction that caters to consumers of the crass. The film has taken a little from many films like ‘Sillunnu Oru Kadhal’, and ‘96’ but strictly keeping in mind what Uppi is comfortable doing on-screen. The opening scene has the hero peering from a copter at a damsel being pursued, lands and saves her. He lectures her about how she should lead her life. Hero is rich but lonely. He’s married to someone he doesn’t like simply because the woman he loved rejects him. Of course, she’s the typical doormat who cooks more for breakfast than any restaurant does but smiles understandingly when he asks for fruits instead. In most such films, it’s the heroine who marries a stranger because of emotional blackmail from the family leaving a lovelorn man to drown his sorrows in liquor. Here it’s the hero in an improbable tale . She doesn’t leave him for another man but confesses she’s used him for a thesis about love! There’s no double entendre here. The vulgarity is blatant and in your face save a few things muted by the censors. There are the usual lines about how women move on, but men retain their loved ones in their heart even building a temple. The most ridiculous thing is the hero booking a suite when the girl who turned him down wants to meet him briefly. What saves the film is a Bhagyarajesque twist in the end which Chandru will tell you is the strong message the film carries.
The film is audacious to say the least. There are flashback scenes featuring Uppi as a college student and he looks the same. He was either born looking old or is the kind of student who’s been in the same class for at least one decade. It’s a sad reflection of Upendra’s stunted growth as a filmmaker too. You have a sneaky feeling he’s directed part of the movie or had a say in writing the screenplay. As an actor he’s as expressive as a mannequin spitting out lines with neither pause nor modulation. The film is technically shoddy too be it the cinematography or the gaudy sets. It’s the editor Deepu who seems to have stitched together pieces of a disjointed plot into a plausible tale. The sad part for Kannada cinema is that ‘I Love You’ is turning out to be a money spinner at the box-office. Upendra will hike his remuneration, Chandru will churn out more tripe in the name of love but so called commercial Kannada cinema has been pushed back by at least a couple of decades.
sshivu@yahoo.com
