Inner voice: December 2018

I used to be one of those Kannada girl, who would not enter the theater to watch a Kannada movie and just shrug when anyone spoke of some movie in theater. Yes, I admit it and you would agree too, if you have seen the trend of movies during our teenage days, when we pick up the movie watching hobby. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against our language movies because I used to start my weekends sitting at home watching old black and white Kannada movies back to back, laughing and enjoying those movies to myself. Such were the movies and content in it. With some good movies here and there, we had to wait till Mungaru Male to bring us back to theater. However, like everything else, once people start to apply the usual "formula" for success art dies!There had many instances where I had tried taking my parents to theater due to the positive word of mouth and on wasting 3 hours, I would have ended up with parents asking to leave them alone happily at home!!

Fast forward to many years and I moved to US and started to watch some movies online while getting some mundane work completed and realized that were many good movies which were hidden below big banner movies with big stars and no content. There started many experimentation with low budget or no budget in hand (crowd funding of Lucia!) With success of good cinemas, we the NRI Kannadigas started having some hopes about getting a show in theaters and with that, many movies have made good money outside India even with limited budget.

I am setting the stage here to say, it is not just about budget or big stars in the movie or a "formula". Entertainment world is changing and changing at a very fast rate with audience constantly looking for something new. A good movie cannot happen without a good talented and dedicated team, who own the passion for excellence and work in unison. When you have a team of such talents, you get brilliant display of result, success of K.G.F!

My art :)

The story is about one man and the introduction of that character is something where the director makes you smile! There are many such moments, scenes where you get goosebumps for the combination of the BGM, building up of the hype and strong persona to such a grand scale. Sure, there have been movies made in that manner, but for me, it is my first in Kannada movies. With director himself being the story writer, there has been no cross over or "lost in translation" seen in narrating the story. Be it the young boy who plays the role of young "Rocky" or Yash himself, the attitude they carry, the fire in their eye make you want to recall the "angry young man" look. Though many might write off by saying, it is too much of "build up" but for me, it is sculpting of that character with those very attitude display in relation to his whole journey.
If you have not watched the movie yet, make sure not to waste your time in the line for popcorn and miss the initial part because, the characters introduction is kind of fast and due to the love the director has shown towards beard in this movie, you might think of multiple characters as same (most of the actors are all new). Though I initially thought that there were some places where editing could have been better, after watching the movie for the second time(Make sure to watch it in a good theater for good sound effects!), I believe it to be on purpose and I don't want to speak more on it! Movie seems like a wild journey where you are curious to know what is next and the second half becomes even more gripping. Music director has really done a wonderful job by not sticking to the norm and experimenting, which has paid of well and plays huge role in making each scene grand and deep. While I do love the "jokey" song from the old movie, the movie could do better without it (or should I mention "Gali Gali" hindi version seems much better). The fans who adore Yash have a feast in terms of many dialogues - kudos to dialogue writer but some were cheesy :) Every actor chosen to play their role have done a marvelous job and the cinematographer wasted no angles or shots.
While I am itching to mention some of my favorite scenes from the movie, I do not want to spoil it for you all who have not yet watched the movie. With all being said, Art director has done a tremendous job in terms of building the set to perfection with the Mahakali idol scene being such a stunner, which would not have happened without a generous and confident producer. With a small complaint that the climax didn't last long to savor it, I will sign off saying that this movie didn't disappoint us all who were eagerly waiting for almost 2 years for this movie, celebrated this in a grand scale here in Dallas by holding a small ceremony before releasing it and by wearing the KGF merchandise. True that, "A film is the team's until the point it reaches theaters after which it is the fans who own it!" Now that I have started the journey, I can't wait to watch the Chapter 2!
I have never eagerly looked up the news to see the gross collection of any movie the way I have been for this movie - This is a proud moment for all of us, not because of the money it is making but for the fact that people are talking and asking about "Kannada" and not "Kannad". K.G.F did what we all could not!

While this probably is the last Kannada movie I get to watch in theater this year, I did watch ,many good ones this year (yes, many in theater!) and have some lined up to watch. My personal favorites of this year are :