Muniya Kannada Movie
Muniya starts off as a usual Bangalore underground story which has been seen over and over again in the Kannada film industry. The viewers will be bored to death with seeing the oft repeated gang wars, blood spitting word battles on the street.
Towards the end of the first half, a sensible story line gets into motion. You feel that the monotony of narration is slowly fizzling out when the hero's past life is narrated. But by that time your patience would be exhausted, and Muniya will end up as another ordinary film that fails to make any impact.
Muniya stars Mayur who had such a good beginning in Yograj Bhat directed Mani where he proved his talents. But in recent days, the actor is picking up bad projects which has really affected his career. With a little patience, this young actor could have waited for good projects, but some how he has been showing a lot of urgency in signing projects.
Thankfully Muniya is not like his many previous films, though it starts off very badly. The film has some stuff in the story line and director Nagachandran has been able to extract another good performance from Mayur. Muniya clearly shows that Mayur can deliver good results as an actor if he can get some good scripts.
Coming to Nagachandra's work, it has to be said that the director has shown some sparks in the second half, but overall his work is just passable. The film's script had tremendous scope of improvement, but Nagachandra has obviously not redone his original script. His lack of imagination and knowledge about new styles of film making is striking throughout the film. That is precisely the reason for the dragging sequences in the first half which lack any freshness or credible content in it. The second half may even come as a respite for the viewers.
Muniya is an orphan who works with a rich village land lord. From the younger days, Muniya is attached to the landlord's daughter Gowri. Since the young girl is neglected by the landlord, Muniya takes care of her. Though the girl loves Muniya, he is only taking care of her as a dutiful servant. The girl proposes to Muniya, but he is not prepared to be lured. Then the girl forces Muniya to take her to city where he faces many problems. The girl is hit hard by a group of villains and is hospitalized. Despite her precarious medical condition, Muniya prefers to retain the same type of love and affection for her.
Mayur shows his acting potential in the village portions and his sequences with Sahithya. The innocence in his character is believable. Sahithya makes an impressive debut. The film's other heroine Sheetal has been only added for some glamour quotient in the film. Komal's comedy is cheap, but still the actor is able to bring in some laughs in the theatre. Rangayana Raghu's name can only be seen on the titles, but he has not show cased anything on the screen to write about.
Mathew Rajan's camera work is just O.K. Music compostion by Abhiman Roy may not bring memories of his previous film Taj Mahal, but still can be applauded for its variety. The songs Oh Chandamama is also well picturised.
If you have patience to withstand and watch the boring first half, Muniya may appeal to you in the second half.
