Last few years have been very good for Kannada Film Industry in terms of producing good cinema - Lucia, Rangitaranga, Ugramm and Ulidavaru Kandanthe to name a few. A few movies may not have succeeded at the box-office but these are the movies which will become cult classics in the long run and inspire the new guns to make a good movie.
We are yet to reach the middle of 2016, but there are already many reasons why 2016 will be the best year for Kannada Cinema. We have tried to list out a few movies which made every Kannadiga proud and took Kannada cinema to new heights.
U Turn
Made by Pawan Kumar of Lucia fame, the movie created buzz from the day project was announced. It released worldwide last month, and Pawan succeeded in reaching everyone's expectations which made this movie as a super hit. At the same time, movie was appreciated by critics all over the world, for its screenplay and narration.
U Turn has managed to collect close to 5 Crores (worldwide nett collection) till date which is very good and iterates the point that good cinema has audience in any part of the world.
It is being remade in Telugu and Tamil by a well-known production house with top Telugu/Tamil actress Samantha playing the lead role, which would be a testimonial for Pawan Kumar's work in times when our top stars are remaking movies from Telugu and Tamil.
Thithi
The movie which had non actors and made by newcomers was not known to Kannada media, leave alone the Kannada audience, until movie was premiered and appreciated in Mumbai Film Festival last year.
The movie had a theatrical release almost after a year and undoubtedly, today this is most spoken about Kannada movie. Meanwhile, movie went on to win awards in many international film festivals.
Also, Thithi was adjudged as the best movie in both National and State Awards. If this was something less to be proud of, bigwigs of Bollywood like Aamir Khan, Irfan Khan, Anurag Kashyap, Kangana Ranaut and many other celebrities watched this classic at private screenings and took to social media to appreciate this gem.
Godhi Banna Sadharna Mykattu
This Anant Nag starrer was in news from the day project was announced. When movie released earlier this month, movie surpassed our expectations and turned out to be a very good movie. The performances of all the artists especially Anant Nag and Vasishta N Simha were appreciated unanimously.
The movie was just released in A Centers and responses have been fantabulous till date. In the weekends, it had almost 100% occupancy in the multiplexes and in weekdays, percentage is nothing less than 90, which is again excellent. One last wish for fans would be, Anant Nag Sir winning an Oscar for the stupefying performance.
Shivalinga
A few may be shocked looking at our fourth pick, but we have reasons why we can be proud of this movie and what it did differently from the other movies. Despite having a star hero in the form of Shivanna and commercial director P Vasu, movie did not follow the typical commercial formula.
Shivalinga completed 100 days in 6 theaters including 4 single screens at a time when it is a big achievement for a movie, if it completes a week or two in a theater. The movie was released in other metropolitan cities and overseas as well. It garnered good responses in those centers as well, proving once again that at the end of the day, only content matters.
Let's hope that this is just a start, we have many more meaningful and good cinema coming up in Kannada Film Industry. Keep supporting good Kannada cinema!
