Junglee Draws the First Blood in 2009!

They say it takes two to tango. The eccentric combination of Suri and Yogaraj Bhat has delivered the first and only hit of 2009 (so far, that is) in Junglee. And while Gandhingar reels under a series of deserving flops, the success of Junglee again brings forth a simple fact which is being pushed under the carpet repeatedly by our star-struck industry.

The fact is simple; you cannot substitute stars for a tight script and a good director. It doesn’t work that way.

While Yogaraj Bhat’s lyrics and Harikrishna’s musical wizardry helped Junglee to find its place in the concrete jungle in the initial stages, it was Suri’s knack of filmmaking that made it a hit. Yes, it ain’t his best effort; and there was hell lot of scope for improvement, especially in the untidy second half. But there’s simply no doubt that Suri is the best storyteller among the current crop. The guy has no competition apart from Yogaraj Bhat.

And to think that every media person denounced that film except the Bellitere critics!

There have been a handful of films released in 2009 and except Junglee and Ambari, none of the films could even hang around to recover their investments. These include even big star cast films from the likes of Shivarajkumar (Nanda), Ganesh (Circus), Vishnuvardhan (Nam Yajamanru), Ravichandran and Balaji (Rajkumari) and Ramesh Arvind (Venkata in Sankata). Yes, the jury is still out on Ramesh’s Venkata in Sankata, but the current reports suggest that Venkata is certainly in Sankata!

While Junglee won on the basis of fabulous music and hilarious dialogues, Ambari had some really good music, eye catching cinematography and a certain volume of novelty factor in the story. Plus, director Arjun made sure that the film and script at least got the treatment they deserved.

And the film got the response it deserved, making it a moderate hit.

And funnily, the film fraternity is searching for a problem where it’s easier to find solutions. In an interview to IANS, the bigwigs in the Kannada film industry blamed increasing ticket rates and rampant piracy as the main reasons for this slump. Pirated copies of E Sambhashnae, Baaji, Kempa etc, etc, anybody? Also, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil movies run well in our state despite having a higher ticket rate. If Kannada industry believes that these two are the reasons for the slump in business, we surely have a long, long slump in our hands.

That’s because as long as the industry refuses to acknowledge the changing tastes of the people and does a complete U-Turn in its approach to filmmaking, we will continue to watch masterpieces that invade our senses every Friday. Nopes dear, the problem with Kannada industry doesn’t lie in rampant piracy of newly released films.

In a strange and quirky sense, industry will be back on its feet the day pirated copies of Kannada movies are rampantly found everywhere in the street. That shows that the movies are at least famous!