Just watched Sachin Ravi and Rakshit shetty's magnum opus Avane Srimannarayana (ASN) and man! it was delightful watch. Without an iota of doubt, ASN will be regarded as one of the landmark movies in Kannada film industry. However, it may take quite a long time to get that cult classic tag.
Many may consider it as just another mass entertainer with crowd pleasing dialogues and stunts. But ASN is not just that kind of a movie. Its elegance lies in the way the movie has been presented to the audience. Even with its 186 minutes run time, ASN managed to keep the audience hooked to the screen.
When I glanced at some of the reviews written on this movie, those opinions really baffled me. Majority of the reviewers struggled to categorize this movie in to a proper genre. Some told it as comedy ! Others as drama or fantasy genre. I am sure that ASN is such an audacious attempt in Kannada film industry that the regular movie pundits are not yet ready to receive this extravaganza!
ASN is a rare amalgamation of several movie genres and it's difficult to categorize it. It has the feel and look a classical western genre where John Ford had ruled in the 50s and 60s. It also has all the selfishness of a spaghetti western genre where greats like Sergeo Leone ruled. It has a perfect fantasy element, hallmark of Italian great Fedorico Fellini.
After inheriting all these elements of different genre, it has the subtle local touch by having various anecdotes of Indian Mythology especially from Ramayana and Bhagavatam. While the first several points makes it a totally foreign film, the equally heavyweight dialogues with a lace of Indian mythology makes it a very much native film.
One of the hallmark of Rakshit and his team is they blend several aspects of populist world cinema while writing the script. One thing I can say about Rakshit and his script writing team is that they watch loads and loads of world cinema.
The leading character of ASN inspector Narayana is a heady cocktail of many wonderful characters which we observed and cheered on the big screen. He has the shrewdness of Clint Eastwood of "A fistful of Dollars". He has the funny mannerisms of Jack Sparrow. His character burst in to cruise mode as the Clint Eastwood explodes at the climax of Hollywood classic "Unforgiven". In simple words; when Jack sparrow enters a Western movies set with a cigar in Clint Eastwood style in the guise of a cop, that's Narayana aka Rakshit Shetty!
It may look so easy on paper but Rakshit plays brilliantly to the gallery. When in a crowded cinema hall, on the screen, a confused and distraught Hiranyakashipu confronts his confident son Prahlaada_ "elliruvanu ninna ShriHari?"
Enters Narayana by tearing the movie screen! That's a creative entry which gives total justice to the innovative movie title ASN. From that moment till he downs the baddie Jayarama (brilliantly played by Balaji Manohar) in a posture similar to the one Lord Narasimha slaying HiranyaKashipu, its Rakshit all over. He grabs more than 80 % of the screen time but we don't complain. It's a treat to watch. The dialogue delivery is top notch.
All other leading characters like Shanvi Srivastava (playing a serious version of Haripriya of Bell Bottom), Achyuth Kumar, Balaji Manohar (gives you chilling stare) and Pramod Shetty (his left silvered tooth reminds me of a similar right silvered tooth of Tuco played by Eli Wallach in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!).
Background score from Ajaneesh Loknath is superb. Cinematography by Karm Chawla is amazing. Frame by frame the visual appeal increases. ASN has an awesome production design. From the truck with a "Maya Loka" nameplate to the lone solitary bar in the middle of a barren land, production design is top notch. The wooden floors, wooden staircases, wooden lamp posts, wooden half doors of the bar, cowboy hats, smoking cigars, big beer mugs and card playing mobs.... everything gives you a solid Western feel.
I am giving 9 out of 10 for this wonderful movie.
Rating 9 is because it will go down in the history of Kannada Film Industry as a Masterpiece.
Gave 1 less from the perfect score because I felt there are certain areas needs improvement.
It would have been nice if they used more horses in the movie! For a movie with this cinematography and production design, horses would have added more depth to the Western genre feel.
It would have been really nice to see Police station with a western movie feel. Also one of the 2 scenes involving Yograj Bhat (as Swami Guptananda) needs a retake!
Cowboy Krishna would have spoke at least one dialogue in this movie! rather than making us to wait for his next movie!!
Well, these are minor glitches. Make no mistake. Soon ASN will be counted as a cult classic in Sandalwood. A wonderfully funny, cunning, gritty, charming, talkative character of inspector Narayana will be remembered for long.
