Review: 'Kalpana '(Kannada) is a crazy mix of humour and horror

Film: Kalpana (Kannada)
Director: Ramnarayan
Cast: Upendra, Lakshmi Rai, Umasree, Saikumar, Shruthi, Achyuth, Om Prakash Rao, Bullet Prakash
Rating: ***1/2

This remake of Tamil film Kanchana, the original of which, saw Raghava Lawrence play the lead role while handling the megaphone and Sarath Kumar play the role of a transgender, sticks to the original, yet adds some Kannada spice to enhance the overall flavour. Celebrating his 125th film with Kalpana, Ramnarayan has faithfully followed the original version and succeeded in meeting the expectations of cine buffs, especially Real Star Upendra’s hardcore fans.

Upendra deserves appreciation for agreeing to play this type of a challenging role. His performance, gestures and dialogue delivery are the USPs of the film and it may not be an exaggeration to say that it is for the first time in the history of Sandalwood that Upendra has been seen working hard to keep pace with the young and energetic Lakshmi Rai.

For Lakshmi Rai, this was however a cakewalk as she also starred in the original, though, one must say it was nice to see her back, after a four-year gap. Umasree is back with a bang and it is a treat to watch her performance  not only in the horror scenes and but also in a song sequence in particular. Shruthi has also done a neat job. Her dialogues are laced with the North Karnataka accent and the scene where Umasree and Shruthi struggle to come out of the house will go down in Kannada film history as one of the funniest scenes ever made.

Now to get to the story, Raghava (Upendra) likes to spend time playing cricket with his friends and can beat goons during the day but  is afraid of everything and anything around him in the night. He needs his mother (Umasree) to stand outside of the toilet while he is inside. He also expects his mother to sleep next to him after keeping a number of chappals and brooms around the cot to avoid evil spirits.

One day he happens to visit a place to play cricket with his friends but he and his friends have to leave the ground due to some unavoidable reasons. His cricket stumps get blood stained strangely and more bewildering events unfold at home. Meanwhile, Raghava starts behaving like a girl and becomes  aggressive. At this juncture the story takes a twist bringing Kalpana into the picture. Who is Kalpana? Simply put, this is an interesting movie — go watch it for some fun!