Ramana Avatara desperately tries to recreate Rishi’s magic witnessed in the 2017 hit comedy thriller Operation Alamelamma. However, the Vikas Pampapathi directorial is another example of how Kannada cinema hasn’t cracked the genre of dark humour yet, as Rishi’s goofy portrayal gets let down by flat writing.
In this comic retelling of the Ramayana in a modern setting, Rishi plays Rama, a quirky youngster with no big ambitions. Things change when Rama decides to work for the welfare of his village by planning to contest in the upcoming elections. When his friend (Anirudh Acharya) disappears with the funds collected from the villagers, Rama flees (the vanavasa) to Mangaluru.
In the coastal city, he falls in love with Sita (Pranitha Subhash), who is later kidnapped by a feared gangster called Alexander (Arun Sagar) and taken to Bengaluru. The first half is watchable, with some jokes landing well and the plot moving from one point to another with small surprises.
Ramana Avatara (Kannada)
Ramana Avatara loses steam in the second half, tumbling downhill with no redemption. The writing of Vikas Pampapathi resembles a gasping runner who sprints too early in a marathon, and has little energy left to complete the race.
Rishi, with his mannerisms and coming timing, can do only so much without the support of funny lines and hilarious situations. Ramana Avatara could have benefited had it given equal importance to other characters apart from its hero.
We wonder what makes Sita so interesting that Rama falls in love with her. The love story gets summarised through a romance number, with the director believing that slow-motion visuals involving the two are more effective than sold drama between them.
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If Pranitha Subhash’s character lacks an interesting personality, Arun Sagar’s villainous act, supposed to be a spoof on Ravana, is hard to sit through. He is terribly loud, and the dialogues are outdated.
Unnecessarily long scenes kill the potential of smart ideas. For instance, the second half begins with a group of men seeking support from youngsters in Bengaluru to stop the government from banning marijuana. It’s a quirky idea that loses its essence when the joke is stretched beyond its capability to make us laugh.
Even the portion when Rama accidentally befriends Alexander, his actual nemesis, persists so long that one shouldn’t get blamed for zoning out of the proceedings. To make matters worse, Ramana Avatara ends with no great payoff to its grand claims about a potential face-off between the hero and the antagonist.
It’s evident that the director envisioned the film as a rollercoaster comedy. He fumbles in his execution. Even after it has solved the plot’s central conflict, the film shows no mood to end, putting us in a state of frustration. The silence in the packed hall, for a film tagged as a comedy-drama, is a hint of the audience’s verdict.
Ramana Avatara is currently running in theatres
