THE BRAVE KEEP NATION SAFE AND FREE
The
Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde said: ‘Patriotism is the virtue of
the vicious’. Au contraire! Many surely will argue it is a virtue of the
virtuous.
“ಆರ್ಯಭಟ” (‘Aryabhata’) is a 1999
Kannada film that has the duty cast on the patriotic for its theme. The suspense
thriller, a murder mystery, is based on renowned Tamil writer, Sujatha
Rangarajan’s novel.
The prime
suspects in the murder case include Anand’s boss, Somashekar (Avinash); and, his
wife, Bharati (Soundarya), besides the maid, a neighbor and a colleague. The lack
of a strong motive and the existence of alibis for the suspects confound the woefully
lost police.
That is when CBI
Officer, Riyaz (Devaraj) is assigned to the investigation team. So then, does
he manage to crack the murder?
That is the rest
of this “whodunit” suspense flick.
Director KS Ramanath, who
is also credited with the screenplay, has desisted from indulging in stereotypes; the murder victim’s character has shades of
gray and moral ambiguity. The narrative, comprising of a series of flashbacks,
uses the usual tropes for creating suspense.
Ramanath has deftly woven clues into the
screenplay; he has incorporated red-herrings judiciously too. The comic scenes
are an unwanted distraction; levity and frivolity are force-fitted
into the story…unnecessarily too.
V Manohar’s film score is over-the-top at times. Excessive
eeriness in the music track and sound effects tend to be counterproductive to the
dramatic impact and emotional appeal of some sequences. The camerawork of BC Gowrishankar camerawork is A1, as always. Suresh Urs’ editing is terrific
despite the overhead of a slack screenplay.
Ramesh Aravind and
Soundarya in the lead roles have put in memorable performances. Devaraj
is EXCEPTIONAL as the cop. The portrayals of several in the supporting cast are
too melodramatic.
I rate this murder mystery: 7.5 on
10!
Comments
Post a Comment