“Aithalakadi” - a painful watch (Kannada Movie Review)

Film: “Aithalakadi”; Cast: Bullet Prakash, Rangayana Raghu, Neetu and other 108 Kannada film artists; Producer: Chitra Kuteera; Cinemetography-Director: J.G. Krishna; Music Director: Sadhu Kokila

Before the release of “Aithalakadi”, Bullet Prakash, one of the producers of “Aithalakadi”, and its lead actor had claimed that the film is unique as it has more than 108 Kannada film artists including five established heroes in special roles. Unfortunately, this uniqueness is totally spoiled by slipshod work by artists and technicians who seem to have not taken their work seriously.

“Aithalakadi” is certainly the most absurd Kannada film seen in recent times. It is just a hotchpotch of many sequences and does not have any particular story line. The film has plenty of inane and meaningless dialogues making it a tedious watch.

Director J.G. Krishna should be squarely blamed for writing an amateur script and giving full freedom to artists.

The role of five heroes - Ravichandran, Jaggesh, Sudeep, Vijay and Vijaya Raghavendra - are not related to the storyline and they have been used mostly in irrelevant sequences.

It is very difficult to pin point even one positive element in the film - even the music and other technical work are not up to the mark.

In the film, Raghu, an assistant director in Kannada films,, accidentally meets Prakash who has just come to Bangalore from his village.

Raghu wants to make it big in the movies and even succeeds in his first attempt as a director. But he is shattered when he comes to know about his wife’s extra marital affair. He loses interest in work. But later make amends.

Prakash is saddled with a sick mother but his problems are solved too in the end.

Talented artists like Rangayana Raghu, Bullet Prakash and Sreenivasa Murthy are made to act like buffoons. All the top stars are wasted, so is Neetu.

Sadhu Kokila fails as an actor and also as a music director.

Krishna’s camera work is of low quality which makes him doubly culpable as he is also the director. In short “Aithalakadi” is a painful watch.