Rangitaranga (Kannada)
Director: Anup Bhandari
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Rangitaranga is a well-made thriller. It is painfully long, of course (177 minutes), but Anup Bhandari seems to know how to keep the audience glued to the screen during a lengthy film.
The plot, in the first half, dabbles in the realm of superstition and the spirit of the dead.
It has you convinced that this is a film made on the likes of Aptamitra because it has all the components of the familiar horror film – a remote ancestral house, a couple from the city and the spirit of a performer trapped in the house, to name just a few.
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The film is set in Kamarottu village, which is in a remote part of Dakshina Kannada. A couple, Gautam (Nirup Bhandari) and Indu (Radhika Chetan), decide to travel to Indu’s ancestral home in the village in order to perform a ritual that will ward off evil spirits.
However, as soon as she arrives, in every nook and corner of the house, Indu hears what she perceives as an evil spirit. The spirit appears in the form of a male folk performer dressed in an attire eerily similar to that of Yakshagana. Indu then goes missing from the house and that is when Gautam uncovers a murky trail of murder and crime in the village. The second half therefore leaves the spirits behind and becomes a full-fledged crime thriller full of run-ins with the police, chase and action sequences and the final discovery of the real criminal.
Bhandari is a clever director. First, he opens the film with a subject that would generate curiosity.
He then turns this subject on its head in the second half rooting all of the action in the sphere of the real instead of the occult. Second, he uses sound ingeniously to keep his viewers on the edge of their seat and even succeeds in sending a chill down their spine once in a while.
The first-half, for instance, is full of gut-wrenching moments that take place in quick succession. Nirup Bhandari and Radhika Chetan perform brilliantly. Sai Kumar as Kalinga Bhat stands out in the film. Avantika Shetty who plays a journalist essays her role well too. Bhandari also seems to have an equally talented crew. Directors of photography, Lance Kaplan and William David, make their contribution evident in the cinematography of the film that successfully retains the mood of the story in every frame. Shots of Yakshagana performers getting ready before a performance and workers preparing the costume of the performer are beautifully done.
The director also successfully captures the flavour of the region and gets the essence and accent of the language right.
Rangitaranga is a film that will demand your attention throughout. It may use predictable ploys to generate thrill but it succeeds.
ARCHANA NATHAN
It has all the components of the familiar horror film – a remote ancestral house, a couple from the city and the spirit of a performer trapped in the house