Sunday, October 21, 2007

Aa Dinagalu – Good Effort

Aa Dinagalu – Good Effort

Based on Agni Sridhar’s book “Dadagiriya Dinagalu”, this movie depicts the events that took place during the last days of Bangalore underworld don Kotwal Ramachandra during 1985. Debutant director Chaitanya succeeds in telling an underworld related story without any bloodshed. May be other directors can take a cue from him for making movies without machchus, longs which endup in lots of bloodshed meaninglessly.

Chetan (Chetan) is the son of a wealthy businessman Girish Naik (Girish Karnad) is in love with a dance teacher Mallika (Archana Shastry), but Girish Naik doesn’t like this and hires the then don of Bangalore Kotwal Ramachandra(Sharath Lohitashwa) to separate lovers. Kotwal himself is leading a battle for supremacy in Bangalore against the old don Jairaj (Ashish Vidyarthi) who is released from jail after 10 years and is struggling to get back his lost empire. Chetan gets to know of his father’s intentions and in the pretext of getting his lady love, unknowingly falls into the trap of underworld and offers Jairaj to help kill Kotwal. The rest of the story is about how this is achieved with lots of twists, deception, switching loyalties, the police making use of their rivalry to elimante one of the dons, etc., finally ending up in Kotwal’s murder by Chetan and his aides. What is appreciated in all these is that there is hardly any bloodshed unlike other gory underworld and rowdy theme based movies.

Chetan impresses as the hero who can do anything to get his love, but he fails to emote rightly in many sequences. Archana is good and impresses with her innocence and portrayal of a traumatized lover. It is Sharat Lohitashwa who plays Kotwal Ramachandra who steals the show with the right expressions and body language as the don. Ashish Vidyarthi as Jairaj is good. Atul Kulkarni is brilliant as the learned rowdy and impresses with his great mannerisms. Girish Karnad is good as the desparate father who wants his son to forget his love and can do anything to stop him from marrying her.

Agni Sridhar and Girish Karnad’s screenplay is good with some great moments on screen. But the story pace is slow and drags during the second half. The film which has been edited well could have been trimmed by atleast half an hour. Cinematography by H C Venu is good. Ilayaraja’s music is pleasing. Background music is good in parts but it fails to catch up with the high-drama involved.

Chaitanya’s direction is good and he has put lots of efforts to get the best out of everyone in the movie. The authenticity in the looks of the dons and the right look and feel for year 1985 are the highlights. But some minor details like the straightened and colored hair for some characters look out of period. Also are some dress combinations which were not existent in the 80s. But these are minor and go unnoticed due to the way he has presented the story of “Dadagiriya Dinagalu”. He truly shows promise amongst the present young brigand of directors. What is appreciated in Chaitanya’s work is he has presented the movie in a pleasant form with no traces of blood even though it is a rowdy and underworld related movie. This would ensure that even family audience will be drawn towards the theatre.

18 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes,the film is very good except the 2nd half dragging.
New directors,actors are doing extreme well..Keep it up guys.
My question is:Why don't we watch kannada movies when there are good directors,actors,script,screenplay etc..definitely yes.So don't remake movies...let us think we have started now and we will show the nation what is kannada industry.

All the best.
Surya

Sreejohn said...

Yes Rajesh, I agree with you. Dont know why Kannadiga's dont encourage good Kannada movies instead try to find fault with them. I saw this movie in INOX and there were hardly 30 people in the auditorium, whereas some crap Hindi movies were booked for the day, and saw lot of Kannadiga's booking tickets for those movies. Kannadiga should support Kannada movies as we have only Kannada audience, only then our industry can grow

Chetan said...

rajesh n sridhar ... you both are true! its due to lack of proper patronage that our original movies are not clicking. At the same time we ourselves should think why we are making remakes as hits... some of the super hits of the past few years have been remakes. Lets not get into the names. But many were remakes!! If that is true, we should not be supporting remakes and we should be protesting by not watching them and making them as super hits.. right?

Satish said...

don't worry..this movie collections will pick up.

It is an absolute classic...

Satish said...

I went to sampige on saturday...

balcony was full...but 2nd class empty..

though it looks slow ,the movie is very intense and at times keeps on the edge of ur seat...

remember when jairaj men were just abt to kill chetan and shridar..also bar scene where sardar comes in to support chetan...

all in all super movie..I have been publicizing this movie a lot...

lots of friends going agin this weekend..

Unknown said...

No doubt in accepting this movie as a good one…..
After a long time Kannada Industry has directing good movie….
Overall this a good entertainment movie…

Great Job guys keep it up......

Rahil Zubin said...

May be ones in many years we get to see some movies which really makes sense and pretty watchable.
Aa dinagalu is a awesome and a must watch.
O loved it.

Anonymous said...

I heard that this movie is good but not able to watch since am not in karnataka. For people who are out of country or out of state it is such a sad thing that they cant watch kannada movies. Especially these days so nice movies are coming and we are unlucky. Whereas all other language people like hindi, telugu, tamil, malayalam get to watch their movies and tv channels where ever they are. Go to any movie download website and see there will be 1 kannada movie for 100 tamil movies :-(
kannada industry must do something for this start releasing CDs and upload in internet and create huge market.
I came to know about this blog while browsing for aa dinagalu. Nice work and nice and honest review.

Unknown said...

Kannadiga's,
Kannada Film Industry is not same anymore. A new era started with "Nenaperali" and the legacy still continues. I watched "Aa Dinagalu" and was very happy to see a voilent story narrated in a neat manner without bloodshed.
This is a good one and I ouch many more will follow.
Please go and see this movie and tell Kannada films rock and Kannada rocks.
Sirigannadam Gelge, Sirigannadam Balge.
Namaskara,
Naren Athreya

srinivas said...

Could any please mail me the mail id of "sridhar - film producer" - Aadinagalu.

srinivas.poorni@gmail.com

srinivas said...

this movie is simple and effective. i do not watch kannada movies usually. nowadays, hearing a lot bout them, i made an attempt to watch "aa dinagalu". believe me folks! its a good one. everything is appreciable. just watch it feel it.

we should encourage this kind of talents coming up!

Cheers!!! Aa Dinagalu Guys!

Good Luck !

Unknown said...

This movie is a real classic, I very rarely watch Kannada movies. I was the last to watch this movie among my group of friends. Ever since I have saw the movie on December 4th couldn't stop appreciating it, brilliant movie, never a dull moment, it is a great thriller in every sense. Since Dec 4th I have watched it 5 more times in Triveni & some of my friends have watched it over 15 times. I would like to convey my heartfelt congratulations to the whole of Aa Dinagalue team.

Please provide me Agni-sridhar's email ID.
My email ID is scarletjet@gmail.com

Hejjey said...

Watched the trailer and I am really impressed by it and also by seeing all these comments.
These days the songs in most of the kannada movies are really good. I am sure that this will have a good impact on the movies also.
Coming to India in Feb end & I hope the movie stays on in the theaters till then!

Unknown said...

Aa dinagalu It is a verry big success in kannada film industry director chitanya had good job to how impress unworld in present situvation so many film is come in kannada and other languge but some movies like nayagan and satya have done. i will recentaly read in week magzine one of the top 10 most movie in india. thanks to ur team.
ananth
mandya

Unknown said...

Number one movie in kannada industry. i ever seen such a movie in my life. i like to say it is a zindagi ka movie. no doubt about it.thanks for the aa dinagallu team for such an wonderful movie that to in our kannada.

thanks
Prakash

Shivakumar Malagi said...

Aa dinagalu Nooru dinagalagali

Shivakumar Malagi, Bellary

Newsbird said...

Video Songs of this movie available at Desiwood - Kannada Video Songs Free Download

Unknown said...

I hava got he DVD of "A Dinagalu" which is 5.1, which makes it the first kannada movie to have 5.1!!!!!!