Wilted Jasmine

CCM Movie Review By Raju Shanbhag

Well, the thought behind making Chikkamagaloora Chikka Mallige seems to be hilarious and disgusting at the same time. A few years ago, “Comedy Time Ganesh” became a superstar overnight with Mungaru Male. The film was shot in picturesque locales, had two relatively new actors and it rewrote all box office history. Few years down the line, writer- director Channagangappa picks a story which is based in Malenadu, picks up another TV anchor Shravanth for the lead role and guess what; he picks up Radhika Gandhi, sister of Pooja Gandhi who was the leading lady in Mungaru Male.

It’s easy to see what the director is trying to emulate. But it’s not easy to see an excuse of a film which canters in all directions without any rhyme or reason like a derailed train. For an agonizing two and half hours, director Channagangappa steps on your nerves on numerous occasions; and if you are a reviewer by any chance, you can’t even walk out of the theatre as a mark of protest.

Oh, the story. There is this king (C. R Simha) who looks and acts like a buffoon and he is trying to get one godforsaken diamond back in his procession (god knows from whom). People wanna kill him to get the diamond, which by the way is still in government’s possession and unfortunately for the viewers, they fail every time. The heroine happens to be his granddaughter and the hero happens to be the son of his favorite manager. The rest boys and girls, is a mind numbing, yawn inspiring and utterly boring saga of how the hero and heroine fall in love with each other and how the king gets his diamond back. To fill the empty shoes of the villain, there is this unwittingly comical Avinash who keeps making strange faces whenever camera focuses on him (maybe that’s an artist’s way of protesting such senseless treatment of the story).

Channagangappa is the same person who directed award winning movies such as Karimaleya Kaggattalu. With Chikkamagaloora Chikka Mallige, he only proves that all offbeat filmmakers are not geniuses by default, as most of us tend to believe. There is nothing earth shattering about his treatment of the story and there is not a single moment in the film which you will remember for a long time (heck, you’ll forget most of the film as soon as you step out of the theatre!) It’s shocking to see en experienced director being so careless about issues such as continuity and character developments. Roles are introduced midway, people break into emotional outbursts for no apparent reasons and it seems the director was roaming in the beautiful locales of Malenadu when the shooting was taking place.

To top all this, Chikkamagaloora Chikka Mallige has an impatient editor who cuts scenes as if he is tossing a coin to decide which scene to keep and which one to delete (if he has really done that, that’s a good decision as far as this film goes). The only saving grace of the film is good cinematography by J G Krishna, who captures the greenery of malenadu reasonably well.

Newcomer Shravanth lacks personality to be a hero and his acting is ordinary. He has to improve his acting tremendously if he wants to sustain himself. Radhika Gandhi is bold, as she looks directly into the camera throughout her very first song! Later, she looks elsewhere and you wouldn’t notice the difference.

Veterans like Vinaya Prasad, Sharath Lohithashwa and Karibasavayya perform as well as they can in this sinking ship. Rediff reviewer Vijayasarathi stands in a corner most of the times and makes various uninteresting faces.

Do yourself a favor. Give this movie a miss.