BT Rating: (1/5)

Chandamama Story!

Baa Bega Chandamama Movie Review By Raju Shanbhag

Gandhinagar is a strange place. Here, people offer you an opportunity to learn from their mistakes as they make films without stories every Friday. As these films haunt the empty theatres like bodies without souls, you will have a golden opportunity to learn the valuable lessons at others’ costs. But the eccentricity of this dreamland isn’t just on the surface. It runs deep, very deep. Week after week, people come back with lifeless scripts as if they are on a mission to repeat all the mistakes committed by others to the core. Baa Bega Chandamama is one such film that has wholeheartedly embraced all the typical mistakes of a standard Kannada film.

For all its neat presentation and occasionally witty dialogues, which is as rare as rain in the Sahara desert, the story of Baa Bega Chandamama seems to have been inspired by the last word in its title a little too much. We have been watching these types of stories from the time of our great grandfathers and even they you’d have complained of boredom in their times watching such stories! The story is about two thieves who lift bikes for a mission which no one knows and no one cares. But the hero has a heart of gold and he ends up heroines house to loot the booty (I am talking about the money!) with a fake identity. If you are still interested in knowing what happens next, well, you deserve to see this film!

Murali, brother of Sudharani is the captain of the ship for this film. He has also scored music for this film and it seems that he is a much better musician than a director. When it comes to direction, he is intent on burying a dead script and building a tomb of incompetency on it rather than trying to enliven it with some imagination. And Mr. Murali, if you think a director can’t do anything without a good story, remember people like Yogaraj Bhat and Ram Gopal Varma who are masters of building castles in air without any foundation beneath. We’ll accept even that, Mr. Murali, rather than feeling utterly bored and letdown with such films.

Prince Deepak looks handsome and it appears as if the guy has some talent. But it also appears that he holds himself back in every frame and ends up looking like an actor who was forced into making this film. Telugu Pilla Suhasini (Nopes, not Suhasini Maniratnam of Bandhana fame) has no such inhibitions and it’s a pleasure watching her. Avinash, now a staple diet in these vapid fares, effortlessly sleepwalks through the role. One or two songs are shot well and even the tunes seem to be up to the standard, which is not very high anyway.

Our suggestion? Stay at home and wait for films with better stories.