Gokula Movie Review

Predictable but Beautiful!

Movie Review By Raju Shanbhag

Prakash is a man of his words. In the posters of the film Gokula, he promised that the film will be a family entertainer; and a family entertainer it is. Also, if you have noticed, he didn’t promise anything else in the posters; and true to that underlying subtext coming forth unintentionally in the posters, Gokula is nothing more than a perfect time pass entertainer.

But come on, it’s nothing short of that either!

If you can push aside your urge to see something radically different every time you step inside a theatre, Gokula is one of the finest and cleanest mainstream cinemas to have emerged from KFI in the recent years. It doesn’t bore you with heart wrenching sob stories, it doesn’t overkill the underworld action, and it doesn’t harp on the greatness of love (any kind of love for that matter). But strangely, all these elements are hanging around in the movie, each playing its part quietly and subtly without insulting your intelligence and without trying to dig a hole in your heart with done to death emotional melodrama (perhaps with the exception of climax).

Gokula is the story of four orphans who are trying to find their feet in the outside world with various crooked means. These four guys, along with their lovers, come in contact with a couple (Shrnivasa Murthy and Sumitra) who see their lost child in Vijaya Raghavendra (One of these four orphans). To cut the long but interesting story short, this couple owns a prime land in the heart of the city and some goons headed by KFI regular Ravi Kale are after that property (the name of that property is Gokula). The rest of the film is all about Vijaya Raghavendra and company trying to use the mother-son sentiment to sell that property and later having a change of heart which results in bloodied faces and crying ladies in the climax.

As you can see now, the story of the film definitely doesn’t sweep you off your feet. But director Prakash conceals this deficit in the film with his sensible yet engaging narration of the story. To start with, it’s such a relief to see the orphans not weeping their eyes out about their unfortunate past. Instead, they have some witty remarks to make about their background and their fraudulent ways of life. In fact, the movie is dominated by deft narration and well executed comedy scenes that keep you engaged. Also, barring climax, none of the emotions in the movie are overdone and hence, you will end up watching a movie that is not too heavy on your senses. There are a few wrinkles that Prakash could have ironed out (like the unexpectedly over-emotional climax and some below the belt dialogues (remember, it’s a family entertainer!)), but that can be passed off as the requirements of a director who has to cater to all sections of masses.

Prakash also manages to get good performances from everyone, starting from veterans like Shrinivasa Murthy and Sumitra to the debutant Nakshatra (daughter of Sumitra). But its Vijaya Raghavendra and Yash, who steal the show with their energy and liveliness throughout the film. Pooja Gandhi has little to do in the film and she does it neatly! Nakshatra has been given very few scenes and fewer dialogues but the girl looks promising in whatever we could see of her.

Mano Murthy’s music and Satya Hegde’s cinematography is standard Gandhinagar fair. Choreographer Harsha’s work in Aaramage idde naanu song is interesting.

On a whole, although there is nothing spectacular about Gokula, it doesn’t fail to keep you engaged till the very last frame.

And maybe that’s what Prakash calls family entertainers!

Also See

• An Interview with Prakash
• Gokula Music Review
• Gokula Movie Stills-II
• Gokula Movie Stills-I