Ulidavaru Kandante Movie Review

25/11/2017
01/CR/Kannada/UA

Ulidavaru Kandante (translation: As Seen by the Rest) is a 2014 Kannada anthology neo-noir crime drama movie written and directed by Rakshit Shetty who also starred in a prominent role. Kishore, Yagna Shetty, Achyuta Kumar, Rishab Shetty, Tara, and Sheetal Shetty are the other actors. The movie had attained a cult status over Kannada Movie Industry (Sandalwood) and was a gamechanger after Lucia (2013).

To get an idea what this movie is, click on the link below to watch it's trailer.

(Subtitles along with the trailer)

Plot:
Regina (Sheetal Shetty), a reporter reports a murder of a person. Then she discovers how important he is to the people who know him and she decides to write a feature story about the person based on each person's perspective.

Performance:
* Rakshit Shetty as Richie aka Richard Antony is the center of attraction of this movie. His character was a mass kind of character and he essayed it flawlessly. His entry was fantastic on the screen and his theme song suited well with the style and attitude of the character.

* Kishore as Munna portrayed his role well. His acting was natural and subtle and the romance sequence was the one of the highlight of the movie.

* Tara as Ratnakka did a fine performance as the fisherwoman and the mother of her lost son, Raghu. The scenes were she talked to her co-workers about her son's arrival and meeting Raghu after a long time, were good.

* Achyuta Kumar as Balu, the drunkard tiger dancer did his best performance. Some of his actions to portray the loss of his mental stability was also good in the movie.

* Sheetal Shetty as Regina, a young reporter  was a brief role and she did a subtle performance. The whole story travels through her writings and narration.

* Other actors did apt performance for the movie. 

Technical Aspects:

* Written and Directed by Rakshit Shetty did a fabulous job, the backbone of the movie. His style of direction was widely inspired of the style of Quentin Tarantino especially the scenes of Richie and the backstory of Raghu (which was shown in a mix of animation and reality) had the essence of Tarantino's direction. The plot has an essence of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) which depicted no specific protagonists and antagonists.  Although he had written a good script and mixed up with mass and class stuffs, he could increase the pace of the movie a bit. At some portions, the movie seemed a bit slow and fast as well. He could have worked more on it.

* DoP by Karm Chawla did a great job on capturing the vision of the director. The usage of different cameras and different filters to portray each story was good enough. The Tiger Dance was one of the best scenes shot in this movie.

* Editing by Sachin did his best to make the film good as possible. His cuts and transitions were different from regular Kannada movies. His editing was sticked well with the screenplay.

* Music by B. Ajaneesh Loknath was good enough but should be given a special mention for his background scores as it actually gave a soul for the movie especially Richie's Theme and The Tiger Dance music.

* Other departments were done a good job throughout the film. 

Note: Richie is a Tamil remake of this movie starring Malayalam actor Nivin Pauly (Richie) and popular cinematographer Nataraj Subramanium (Munna) directed by debutant Gautham Ramachandran. The movie is going to release on December 8 with  U/A certificate. According to director, the movie has been given more importance to Richie than the original and included some elements for Tamil audience. So let's wait fingers crossed till DECEMBER 8th. (So dear Nivin Pauly fans and moviebuffs, don't expect a complete mass masala movie, because it isn't. It's a different kind of movie. A unique experience.)

RICHIE First Look

Click on the link below to watch it's trailer

Final Verdict: Ulidavaru Kandante is a crime drama which isn't a complete fast-paced thriller and those who like crime movies and anthology movies can definitely watch this film. It may won't please everyone.

#avmoviebuff Rating - 3.5/5