'Anna' movie review; An opportunity wasted

Islahuddin N S’s Anna is set in the late ’90s, in a small village in Kollegala. Maadeva, a little boy, craves for rice instead of ragi. His family is  poor and that makes it difficult for him to get the food of his choice.

Due to reasons best left unsaid to avoid spoilers, he unexpectedly ends up in a household where rice is eaten every day. 

Is he happy under the changed circumstances? 

The film is an adaptation of Hanur Chennappa’s Kannada Sahitya Akademi award winning story, Anna. The characters speak in the Kollegal dialect. 

Kannada has many dialects but unfortunately very few films showcase the language diversity in Karnataka. Kannada also has a rich literary heritage of novels and short stories. Yet, very few of them become films. 

The setting is also different from the typical urban-centric Kannada film. All these things promise a different cinematic experience for the Kannada film viewer.

Tragically for Kannada film enthusiasts, Anna is a wasted opportunity.  

Several scenes could have endeared the viewer to feel for the characters. Unfortunately, the director does not use silences and pauses for those scenes. Either unnecessary dialogues or the loud and synthetic background music ruins the intended effect. Sounds of the rural milieu are sacrificed for the background music of the 1980s.

The film’s flow is marred by poor editing that jumps from one situation to another. The sub-plots are left hanging. Some don’t even add to the story. 

The performances are a mixed bag. The gang of kids, Maadeva’s friends, perform well. But Padmashree C R (Sivi) is outstanding. She emotes well and makes a few scenes bearable. 

The rest of the performances are marred by a combination of poor direction and a badly written script. In short, this cinematic effort will sink like a stone in the ocean and everyone except the producer will forget it.

(The movie has been released in Kannada across theatres.)