Ondu Motteya Kathe: The bald and the beautiful

The film takes a look at body shaming and the so-called imperfections.

Direction: Raj B. Shetty

Cast: Raj B. Shetty, Prakash Tumminadu, Usha Bhandary, Shailashree, Amrutha Naik, Shreya Anchan, Rahul Amin, Deepak Rai Panaje

The much-awaited

Ondu Motteya Kathe (OMK), with its strong narration, simplicity and profound thematic premise sets a trend of sorts in Kannada cinema.

OMK evoked curiosity before its release for two reasons — one for Pawan Kumar deciding to produce and market the film; and the other is its brilliant trailer.

The film takes a look at body shaming and the so-called imperfections. Besides the social prejudices against and stereotyping of bald men, it also touches upon the increasing contempt for Kannada and fascination for English.

In certain terms, OMK would remind the audience of Kashinath, a pioneer in portraying heroes who did not fit the stereotype in physical appearance, and to some extent film-maker Phani Ramachandra.

The film revolves around 28-year-old Janardhan (Raj B. Shetty), a Kannada lecturer in Mangaluru, and a die-hard fan of Dr. Rajkumar. His dream is to get married to a ‘beautiful’ girl. But his profile makes that very difficult.

While his brother, who is ‘good looking’, is involved in a string of affairs, he is doomed to self-pity. When marriage brokers fail, Janardhan takes it upon himself to find a bride. The strength of the film lies in introspective soliloquies, employing dialogues and songs from Dr. Rajkumar’s films to reflect the mind of the protagonist.

The film opens on the lines of Thithi of Raam Reddy with the audience hearing the dialogues on a blank screen with credits rolling. It opens with Janardhan's family meeting an astrologer.

Prakash Tumminadu competes with Raj Shetty in the acting department in the role of a peon in a government college. He is the ‘love guru’ of Janardhan, like Ashok Kumar was for Amol Palekar in Choti Si Baath of Basu Chatarjee.

The scene which exposes the relationship between Prakash and his speech-impaired wife is one of the highlights of the film and turns out to be a turning point in the film. An enchanting and elevating score by Mithun Mukundan and near-perfect performances by all the artistes is a big plus for the film.