Godi Banna Sadharana Maikattu and other Kannada favourites

After ages, I watched a Kannada movie today- Godi Banna Sadharana Maikattu (which in English means- Wheatish Colour Medium Built). I am not a big movie buff and usually watch movies only in English and Hindi. I have watched a few French movies, a couple of Korean and a few in Mandarin- all these with subtitles of course. I speak Konkani at home. I have never studied Kannada at school, and have learnt the language, out of my own interest when in New Delhi, and improved on it when my family shifted to Bangalore from New Delhi. Surprisingly, a few years spent in Hyderabad before we moved to New Delhi, laid the foundation for my Kannada. Most of our neighbours in Hyderabad were Kannada speaking and I picked up the language while conversing with them. When we moved to Delhi, there was no sign of Kannada, except for Delhi Kannada School- where I did not study, and an Udayvani calendar at home which my family kept. I learnt my alphabets from the calendar based on some assumptions,trial and error. To this day, my Kannada is not at the level of very fluent and I have a limited vocabulary, but enough to communicate and understand. My Kannada reading is very slow and I hope to improve on it some day.

Sorry for the digression but I guess one can understand why I have not watched too many Kannada movies- exposure to Kannada cinema in New Delhi was limited and my kind of unfamiliarity with the language for a long time just did not help me generate the same kind of interest as a Hindi or an English movie. However, I have loved almost all the Kannada movies that I have watched. There are a few that I have hated but it is just the tapori types which I hate in all languages.

An aunt of ours suggested that we watch Godi Banna Sadharana Maikattu. I was fortunate enough to find in on YouTube. I loved the movie. It is about a 66 year old man who suffers from Alzheimer's and is lost from an old age home when his busy son drops him off at the gates of the old age home. This triggers a search for him by the son and a doctor at the old age home and leads to a discovery of the life, sacrifices, love and greatness of his father. Meanwhile, the father crosses roads with criminals and is held hostage. Not only does the father kind of make the criminals go crazy but also makes a place, a soft corner, in the heart of the criminals. Do watch the movie to find out more. The name of the movie is the description on the an advertisement for missing person made by the son.

What I liked about the movie is the fact that it has been made very well. There are no songs sung by the characters. There are some songs that are played in the background to convey the emotions of the characters. The storyline is impressive and quite unusual, though the theme of a busy son who does not care enough about his parents is not something uncommon. The only thing I really disliked was the length of the movie which goes on for close to two and a half hours but the good storyline, made the length of the movie tolerable. Anant Nag has delivered a superior performance in the movie in the character of the father. I highly recommend this movie.

Some of my other favourite Kannada movies are:

-  Bettada Jeeva: People of the hills: Based on the book by Shivram Karanth. Unfortunately, due my reading troubles with Kannada, I have not read the book.
- Belathinagal Bale: Moonlit Maiden: A story of a famous chess player and his incognito fan. Unusual theme and very well made again.
- Cheluvi: The cinematic rendition of A Flowering Tree, a story written by A K Ramanujan: Story of a young girl who has magical powers. It is a powerful movie on the environment and man's greed.
- Amruthavarshini: This is a kind of a love triangle with a very interesting twist in the tale. Worth a watch.
- Gauri Ganesha: This is a comedy where there is a smart trickster who tries to make money off 3 men.
- Aptamitra: Best Friend: This was a remake of the Tamil movie Chandramukhi. Apart from the songs and Vishnuvardhan's entry in the movie, I really liked it. Soundarya's acting as a psychological patient was excellent.
- Sangliana movies about Inspector Sangliana who went on to become the Police Commissioner.
- Nishabda: I do not remember the storyline very well....just that it had a lot of dogs that were helping out a man solving a crime. I remember liking the movie.

I hope to watch the movie Lucia soon. I heard it was a great movie and would love watching it.