BT Rating: (1.5/5)

Beautifully Mundane!

Payana Movie Review By Raju Shanbhag

Have you ever traveled for days together at a stretch in a train in the AC coach? If you did, you would have noticed that the opulence and the neatness of the coach will attract you initially. But as the journey stretches into days, you will start feeling the boredom of repetitiveness. The neatness of the coach, the thrill of passing through different stations, nothing really matters.

Watching Payana, one goes through the same emotions that are akin to traveling in a luxury train. The settings are beautiful, the songs are melodious; but after a while when the same things start repeating again and again, you eagerly start looking at the end of your Payana. The journey could have been shorter, or there could have been more exciting things to look forward to.

Payana is definitely not a movie that paints colorful dreams through its songs and then falls flat on its face when it comes to delivering the actual stuff. The direction is efficient, although not groundbreaking. The acting, especially by Ravishankar is refreshing. But it’s the same old story of the film which any decent film lover will understand right in the second frame of the film, that pushes Payana into the countless films which stay in the minds of the people only for a month ot two.

The story is about a poor driver, who is rich at heart and a rich and beautiful girl who takes his taxi for a Karnataka Darshan for 10 days (Yes, the shades of Raja Hindustani are unmistakably there). After 4-5 melodious songs, one fight, an item number, a sick mother and three emotional scenes later, all that started well ends well.

Come on now, we are not going to be as unreasonable as demanding a whole new story every time we go to watch a movie; we know the limitations under which Gandhinagar works. But what is sad to see is even the narration lacks any innovation. The scenes are utterly predictable and the story runs on a single track, without giving any chance to you to expect anything new.

Ravishankar, although looks a bit old compared to the younger heroes flooding the Kannada scene these days, has maintained himself well and he is lively on the screen. And also, his acting is far better than most of the newcomers these days (Of course, he is not a newcomer for the viewers of Silly Lalli). Although this seems a delayed entry for him, he can still make in the industry because he has the personality and acting talent to be a hero.

Ramaneetu Chowdary looks cute and manages to act reasonably well. Rangayana Raghu does not overact after a long period and we can thank him and the director for that.

In terms of storytelling and direction, Payana has nothing new to offer. But if you do not mind watching the repetitions of a neat narration, good camerawork and melodious music, you can still watch Payana. It won’t disappoint you, if you are one of those who are content with less!