Okkadu Migiladu: Way off the mark

A tiresome and laborious film on survival in a war-torn land

Manchu Manoj as a rebel leader in Sri Lanka

This film comes with a lot of passion to tell a story of refugee crisis and surviving against all odds, journeying from a war-torn homeland to seek protection in another nation, only to learn that the exploitation may not stop.

But the filmmaking is a huge let-down. It’s tiresome to sit through the melodrama, over-the-top acting by some of the cast, cinematography that’s often in a state of shaky movement, and some lecturing on human survival against divisive forces.

The director Ajay Andrews Nuthakki, also playing a pivotal part in the film, urges us to look at refugees not through the lens of politics and national boundaries but as people driven to the edge for no fault of theirs. Several films have looked at war-torn regions through personal stories, questioning why the innocent have to bear the brunt of larger socio-political bickering — be it Kashmir, Sri Lanka or civil unrest elsewhere in the world.

Okkadu Migiladu begins in India with students staging a protest condemning the assault and death of three young women. Two of them are refugees and this gives the offenders an added sense of power. Surya (Manchu Manoj) leads the student struggle only to be whisked away by police under the orders of a politician (Milind Gunaji, hamming his way through the role). Surya’s unbreakable spirit stems from his family’s past, traced back to Sri Lanka.

In these portions that show a village facing the wrath of army’s excesses, the director makes it clear which side he is on. A chunk of the flashback belongs to a rebel leader, Peter (Manchu Manoj, again), fashioned after LTTE’s Prabhakaran.

Some portions have the scope to leave viewers moved — like the clash between rebel leaders and the army; the small group of refugees on a boat that’s meandering off-route, away from the Indian coast. The boat journey presents us with a day-to-day account of the group’s struggle for survival and makes a case for the value of life. But then, this portion is needlessly stretched. At one point, from the boat in the middle of nowhere on the ocean, one of the characters screams to Nature and its forces for help. Someone in the audience makes a snarky comment about having to be rescued from the film. The comment might be insensitive, but it’s enough to emphasise how an indulgent, melodramatic narrative can defeat the film’s purpose.

For all the talk about refugee crisis, the story doesn’t weave these elements into a coherent whole. The patchy narrative closes with sermonising. The only thing that’s worthy of praise is the apt casting of actors in the smaller, supportive roles of the refugees. But all the principal actors, including Manchu Manoj, go overboard leaving no room for subtlety.

Okkadu Migiladu

Cast : Manchu Manoj, Ajay Andrews Nuthakki, Anisha Ambrose

Direction : Ajay Andrews Nuthakki

Music : Shiva Nandigam