A bald man as the hero when most of the world of cinema is geared towards selfie-ready near-perfect looking yuppies, is quite a rarity. More so in Kannada cinema. And if the hero is a Kannada professor who speaks the Mangaluru dialect, one is more than merely curious. And then there is the film's title — Ondu Motteya Kathe ( The story of an egg).
Another surprise is that people in the USA are getting to see this Kannada comic drama with English subtitles much before their Indian counterparts. Ondu Motteya Kathe premiered at the New York Indian Film Festival on May 6. The film's team is currently on the last leg of their America tour, where the film was shown on demand in Chicago, Detroit, Dallas and other cities. The film will be released in India in June, now that enough demand for the movie has been created, and will later go online too.
“When I first heard about the film, I thought it was a children's film,” kids Kannada film's Indie spear-header Pawan Kumar of Lucia and U-Turn fame. He saw the film after its first cut and decided to take it on board as producer and market the film through his Pawan Kumar Studios. The film is Raj B. Shetty's baby and he's better known as RJ Raj in Mangaluru, having been on the airwaves of Big FM and Red FM.
Raj, who's written, acted as lead, and directed the film, says: “ I've always liked powerless characters a lot. I'm a big fan of Kuvempu. Whether it's his Malegalalli Madumagalu or Kanooru Heggadati, the workers are as important as his heroes— the reason being that all lives are important. I like that concept. Rather than seeing my hero merely as a bald person I would like viewers to see him as an imperfect person. Of course, I found it easier to write the script because I'm bald and I know the problems, and what one feels inside,” is how he explains the reason for making such a film. The Mottey Song, released online earlier to great reviews, created much buzz and hilariously introduced people to the theme of the film.
Raj admits the film is partly personal but insists it's largely inspired by life. “Any person, even if not bald, would have undergone some teasing, or criticism in life. But what happens when all this hits a simple, courteous Kannada lecturer from Mangaluru—I tried to place a lot of my experiences in front of this character,” adds Raj.
"I was very impressed with the simplicity of the film and the way it was talking about an issue without making the film just about it — body shaming," reiterates Pawan. "The new generation is all about trying to look perfect — these things are huge factors in today's lifestyle. But it's not 'in your face' in the film. The story is about a bald guy trying to get married. It's very honest, funny and Chaplin-like. It's got decent and good humour you can share with family. We felt we should give this film a good launch; we thought we were equipped to do it better. We need something good —it's something that the audience expects from us. This takes it forward for us," says Pawan, about his decision to come on board the film.
The film started out in Mangaluru with a small team that Raj put together, called Mango Pickle Entertainment. "We didn't know Pawan would select and push this cinema one day. So we worked within tight budget constraints. But there's no fun in filmmaking if you don't take a risk," is how Raj sees the idea of making a "risky" film with such an unusual character and concept. Is the audience ready for it? "Our people will never be ready for it because we haven't given them a steady stream of alternate cinema — we simply keep asking them question if they are ready...," laughs Raj. The solution is to give the people so many such films that they begin to expect such cinema routinely, he stresses.
The best reaction he's had till now in the USA to the film, says Raj, is when a member of the audience came up to him and said: “After seeing this film I've been reminded again that I'm human. I've also laughed at several people and others have laughed at me. This film held a mirror to it all.”
