Odahuttidavalu Kannada Movie
"Oda Huttidavalu" revolves around the struggles around the bond between a skilled potter and his physically challenged dumb sister set in a rural background.
The film is a remake of noted Tamil director Cheran's first film "Porkaalam" which won the National award. The film was later made in Telugu as "Manikayam" featuring Srikanth. It has a strong story line with too many incidents in the second half laced with authenticity. "Porkaalam also won because of its lilting music. The Kannada remake version has in addition a comedy plot which could have been intended to give some relief to the audience.
"Odahuttidavalu" is neither a straight frame to frame remake of the Tamil original, nor it is able to perfectly portray the deep affection of the loving brother towards his sister. The narration is slow in the beginning; it becomes sketchy in the middle and takes up the tempo in the latter half of the film. By the time the audience are made to appreciate the good points of this film, their patience would have been worn out. Sai Prakash, the director of the film has not taken care to present the first half of the film in an interesting fashion. The proceedings of the first forty to fifty minutes of the first half will clearly exhaust the audience. Only towards the end of the first half, there appears to be some movement.
Even in the second half, the so called comedy sequences featuring Sadhu Kokila, Rangayana Raghu, Biradar and company comes out as a pain in the neck. The comedy sequences present a jarring note and have been successful in diluting the impact of some of the fine tuned serious sequences in the second half. The director's attempt to make a spoof on the successful film ‘Jogi" clearly backfires.
Ravichandran who was normally seen in flashy dresses and rich costumes does well in the role of a sacrificing brother. He has changed the mode of acting and has worked hard to deliver a strong emotional performance in the film. He is the saving grace of the whole film. Mallika, the Malayalam actress who has worked in Tamil films like "Tiruppachchi" and "My Autograph" matches her talents with Ravichandran and her performance as a dumb girl is touching. Neither Rakshitha nor Radhika have much scope in acting than to be part of song sequences. The director has failed to extract good performances from both these artists. Rangayana Raghu as the drunkard father of the hero is wasted.
Sai Prakash lets down the film from the beginning, though he has been able to get the things right during the second half of the film. Music director R.P.Patnayak has also not been able to get the tunes correctly. One good thing the producer has done to retain the tunes of two popular songs in the original film. But the songs have not been shot properly. The audience who are used to see finely choreographed songs in Ravichandran films will definitely be disappointed in the way the songs are picturised in the film. Malavalli Sai Krishna whose dialogues in films like "Excuse Me” and "Jogi" were well appreciated is surprisingly low key in the film and his dialogues lack punch.
"Odahuttidavalu" makes a poor comparison with the original "Porkaalam", but still is a good film for a one time watch because of Ravichanran and Mallika.
