Review: 'Alemari' (Kannada)

Film:  Alemari (Kannada)
Director: Santhu
Cast:  Yogesh, Radhika Pandit, Rakesh, Adi Lokesh, Umashree, Raju Thalikote
Rating: **1/2

Debutante Santhu, one of the associate directors who had worked earlier with director Prem, has done a neat job in this film. Santhu’s USP is his crisp screenplay. He has taken care to include all the required ingredients — sentiment, love, stunts and songs — that are must to entertain the mass audience.

Yogesh, alias Loose Maada, deserves appreciation for deciding to play such an unglamorous character role in this film. Earlier, Upendra had played the role of a leper in Raktha Kanneeru and Jaggesh acted as a not-so-good-looking man who craves for a beautiful girl in Manmatha — this seemed to be Yogesh’s attempt at the same.

Radhika Pandit is at her best in this film. Her acting, particularly in a sequence where she waits for Yogesh at a bus stop, is superb. She has also proved that she can actually, quite interestingly, dance! The film begins with Pardeshi (Yogesh) accompanying Murthy (Raju Talikote), a labour contractor, to work at a building under construction. Pardeshi is haunted by the memories of his sweetheart Neeli (Radhika Pandit). At this juncture, the director introduces a flashback scene and explains that Pardeshi is Mohan, a milkman who falls in love with Neeli, the daughter of a music teacher. The more Neeli tries to keep Mohan at an arm’s distance, the more he becomes closer to her.

Meanwhile, the director introduces one more character — Palavu Chandra (Adilokesh) — who brings in the much-needed twist to Mohan’s love story. Neeli’s father arranges her marriage with a businessman. What happens to Mohan? Check it out for yourself.
Raju Talikote’s dialogues are something to look forward to and Umasree has provided a good support while Adi Lokesh is convincing as a character with negative shades. Rakesh, who we’ve seen in Josh earlier, has also acted well and believe us, if he continues to accept roles with negative shades, he will soon make all of Sandalwood’s villains take a run for their money.

The music by Arjun Janya is will leave you humming a few tunes even after the movie, but Neeli Neeli, rendered by Shreya Ghoshal and Javed Ali, deserves a special mentions.

Simply put, after a really long time, here’s a Kannada film, you wouldn’t mind watching.