'Parie' - a tedious watch (Kannada Movie Review)

Film: "Parie"; Producer: BDT Abhinaya Chithra; Screenplay-Direction: Sudhir Attavar; Story: Sampanna Muthalik; Music: Veera Samarth; Camera: Anant Urs; Cast: Rakesh Adiga, Nivedhitha, Harshika Poonachcha, Naga Kiran, Sathya, Sharath Lohithashwa, Mandya Ramesh, Sreenivasa Prabhu and others; Rating: *1/2

Director Sudhir Attavar had said before its release that "Parie" may start a trend of tasteful commercial entertainers. But seeing the sequences of the film, which boast of extra-marital affairs and physical intimacy, it looks like the director had some dubious intention to capture the viewers' interest.

'Parie' is made by some Karnataka-based top software engineers working in the US. But their effort seems wasted mainly because of the director, who has been barely involved in writing the script or narrating the story on screen.

He has not done enough to take a big responsibility of wielding the megaphone of a big-budget film, which relatively has new entrants. "Parie" is sure to embarrass the family audience.

His credentials in the Kannada film industry is that he has written two songs for two Kannada films out of which one was from "Savari" that had become somewhat popular.

The story is about a Brahmin boy Bharadwaja, who loves a tribal Lambani girl Parie. He is heartbroken when the tribal leader announces Parie's marriage to another boy Valia from the community.

A distraught Bharadwaja moves to the city to join Sumedha, the owner of a distillery company. As a worker in the distillery firm he impresses its owner, who starts loving him. But she is prepared to sleep with her business rival for some gains. Bharadwaja is shocked that Sumedha can do such a thing to hurt him.

He is in for another shock when he learns that his father, notorious for his immoral habits, has become mentally unstable. He comes back to the Lambani where a mistaken Valia attacks him. Whether Bharadwaja unites with Parie or not is answered in the climax of the film.

Rakesh Adiga, who has shown lot of improvements in acting after his first film "Josh", was unsuitable for the lead role. Even the bubbly Harshika Poonacha as Sumedha lacks the maturity required for the character.

Smitha a.k.a. Nivedhitha is a good actress, but she is used more to add oomph to the film as she is mostly seen in sexy attires. Naga Kiran is average. Sathya, Sreenivasa Prabhu fill in their respective roles.

Veera Samarth's music and camera work of Anant Urs lifts the film to an extent. Art work by Sathyu is also good. Other than these technical qualities, the film is a big bore.

"Parie", a badly narrated film, is a tedious watch.

Veer Samarth is the only music director who has unfortunately not tasted success in the industry despite being profusely talented in both Hindustani and Carnatic music. He is a music director of substance.

It is his bad luck that despite composing some best tunes in the film like "Mugila maathu" and "Minuguthidhe", Veera Samarth ends up as a music composer of a bad film.