Cast: Gururaj, Roopashri, Sreenivasa Murthy, Shankar Aswath, Master Hirannaiah, Bhavya, Vijaya Kashi, Mandya Ramesh
Director: Mussanje Mahesh
'Sankranthi', produced by R.S. Gowda, should have been made nearly four or five decades ago as the storytelling pattern, mannerisms of artists, technical work and even the music compositions remind you of the films of the 1960s and 1970s.
'Sankranthi' ends up as 150 minutes of unbearable torture. Everything starting from the story, narrative, song picturisation and dialogue delivery is old-fashioned. The so-called comedy sequences are just buffoonery and end up irritating the viewer.
Sadly, it is poorly made despite the presence of a large number of artists. Also, its illogical presentation has many loopholes.
In the late 1990s, Gowda made a sentimental rural flick titled as 'Thavarige Baa Thangi', which went on to become a big hit. In the last few years, Gowda has been heaping on such sentimental stuff to the Kannada audience regularly, and failing in his attempts continuously.
He writes his own stories with a number of situations looking similar to what was found in 'Thavarige Baa Thangi'. But in 'Sankranthi', he has moved a step ahead and has taken inspiration from several Kannada films including 'Ondhaagonaa Baa' and 'Nanjundi Kalyana'.
There are too many major mistakes in the film to add up to the viewers' woes. For some of the film's portions, which should have been shot abroad, the producer has shown courage to shoot those sequences in some landmark locales like the Nice Road in Bengaluru. It is easily identifiable.
Except for the picturisation of the songs and a few exterior sequences shot in Bangkok, the other sequences shot in a city like Bengaluru is easily identifiable to even outsiders. And there are many reactions of the artists which are cut and pasted a number of times for some important sequences, which make them repetitive.
The story is about Surya Prakash and Bhoomika, who meet each other in Bangkok, where they start loving each other after some initial hiccups. They carry sweet memories of their relationship.
Surya returns to India where he learns that his mother is separated from her kith and kin because of her love marriage with his father. Surya wants to unite the two warring families separated for more than two decades. He goes to a village where his mother's close relatives live in a big house -- all united and ready to strike if their family is at stake. He wins the hearts of his maternal family members.
Meanwhile, Bhoomika being the daughter of his mother's elder brother comes to the village along with her father to join the big family. When everything is running smoothly for Surya, who also gets a nod to marry Bhoomika, he faces a big problem when some of the family members refuse to forget the past.
They continue with their hostility towards their sister who had eloped with her lover some two decades ago. How this conflict is resolved forms the rest of the story.
Gururaj, the son of talented actor Jaggesh has to learn a lot about acting. But a film like 'Sankranthi', where the story writer and director have made several crucial mistakes, hardly leaves any scope for him to perform.
Roopashri is lost in this mindless film, though she adds some glamour quotient.
All the veteran actors have either overacted or have just repeated some inane dialogues and mannerisms which looked good only in the 1970s.
Cinetech Soori's camera work is just average, while 'Nenape nenapaayithu' is a good song composition from Sreedhar Sambhram.
The film is too lengthy and really needed some sharp cuts.
Movie critics had to bear with a film like 'Sankranthi', but the audience is suggested to keep a safe distance from theatres screening the film.
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