'Sahukara': a replica, not a re-make

Movie Review

Film: "Sahukara"; Starring: Ravichandran, Rambha, Shashi Kumar, Rangayana Raghu, Shobharaj, Sumithra and Vishnuvardhan; Producer: K.Manju; Director: N.Om Prakash Rao; Music: Rajesh Ramanath.

The Kannada film "Sahukara", a remake of the Tamil hit "Muthu", features two stalwarts like Vishnuvardhan and Ravichandran. The Tamil film has also been dubbed into Telugu and Hindi.

Superstar Rajnikanth enacted two characters in the original - that of the compassionate and sacrificing father and his happy-go-lucky son.

In the Kannada version, Vishnuvardhan plays the brief role of the father and Ravichandran the lead role. The roles perfectly match these two matinee idols.

The re-make, however, is not a patch on the original, which was an entertainer par excellence.

A major factor behind the film's failure to measure up to the original is the faulty selection of actors, except for Vishnu and Ravi.

Rambha seems a total misfit, too old for her glamorous role. Shashikumar, too, looks old for his part. Even the comedians are below par.

Another minus point of the film is its music.

Rajesh Ramnath has just lifted tunes from the original. All these popular tunes have been heard many times before.

Maybe this was the producer's choice, but it was not a good decision. Director Om Prakash Rao has stuck to the original plot without caring to change it.

The film is richly mounted. It has been shot in palaces in Mysore and Bangalore, and the sets look spectacular.

Vishnuvardhan excels in a brief role and the flashback sequence is the highlight of the film.

"Sahukara" is a film for the masses. But it could have been a better film, were it not a frame-by-frame copy of the original.