Soundarya - Review

Friday, April 20, 2007

Soundarya is a real surprise package from director Channagangappa who had earlier made the sensitive love oriented film Nannaaseya Hoove with comedian actor Jaggesh. In his second film, director Channagangappa certainly gives indications of his progress as a director. He has grown in leaps and bounds in the way that he narrates the film.

Channagangappa has used the best of talents in the technical department to narrate te film. Hamsalekha has once again delivered one of his best compositions in the title song and "Hrudayada Maathu Kelu'. The background score is well knitted to the story. Cameraman Giri is as usually best behind the camera and he brilliantly captures the locations and at the same time creates a lighting pattern that reveals the mood of the particular sequence.

However, there is one thing that is a matter of concern in the film. The second half looks a little longer largely because there are some sequences in the film, which are repetitive. A little sharper editing could have made this film more attractive. The art director and designers have all done their work perfectly.

Channagangappa takes up the story of an urban upper middle class family who finds itself in trouble because of an inevitable tiff with the underworld Mafia which is involved in the land deals. The family of a chemical engineer having an industrial set up is forced to take up the law when he is tormented by a mafia don. But he has a family to look after and he wants to lead a peaceful life with them. What happens later and how this engineer maintains secrecy of his actions forms the rest of the story. The climax sequence is really the highpoint of the film.

The director has been able to blend the family oriented story element with the incidents relating to the crime in this different type of thriller. But in his eagerness to attract a large number of family audiences, he has added a few sequences relating to the convulsions in the family, which is featured off and on in the film. If he had worked on a tighter script, this could have been a better offering. Despite all this, the writer Channagangappa has written the dialogues well.

Ramesh Arvind has performed to the best of his ability and has done a good job. The actor who was seen in more number of comedy oriented films because of commercial compulsions has really worked hard in this film. It is a fantastic performance Saskhi Shivanand is too full of style and goes overdrive in emotions in a few sequences. But it is heroine Baby Shreya who looks highly attractive in her role. Rudresh has done a neat job in his debut film.

Channagangappa has been able to attract the best out of many of his artists Soundarya' is a must see film for its different type of presentation. Its music and fantastic visual presentation are the USP's of the film.

Banner - Siridi Sai Combines
Producers - Ganapathi Prabhu, R. Govindraju, D. Ramachandra, H.G. Raghavendra
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues, Direction - E. Channagangappa
Cinematography - R. Giri
Editor - N.M. Swamy
Music - Hamsalekha
Cast - Ramesh Aravind, Rahul Dev, Sakshi Shivanand, Baby Shreya Sharma, Avinash , Rudresh nagasandra, Gazar Khan, Lohithaswa, Ashokrao, Shivakumar, Shankarbhat and others.