Reviewed & Written By : Harish Mallya !
Shuddi (2017) / Kannada (with English subtitles), 116 minutes / Thriller, Drama
Content oriented cinema. That seems to be a "happening phrase" in Kannada cinema world. Thanks to the new gen filmmakers the typical formula films are taking a beating. But attempting a content oriented film demands for good thoughts put into a script, screenplay and finally executed to realise that on screen. Unless it is effective on screen it does not provide you the experience.
"Shuddi" releasing this Friday embraces current real world problems of exploitation faced by women. With a strong emphasis on fixing the narrative idea to India .it mixes events inspired by real life incidents [I wont list them but those will easily strike your mind the moment you watch it on the screen]. and a revenge drama. The connect between the inspired real life incidents and the fictional drama is seamlessly established. It is a bit risky to choose a subject that is close to reality and execute it. Unless you have a screenplay that makes it interesting it will end up more like a documentary than a feature film. Even though "Shuddi" has the feel of documentary at least in some parts where statistics of crime against women are talked about and the street plays that come over screen the other part of a female protagonist hunting down the culprits makes it an interesting watch.
The film does start with a wide shot of ocean and most of the screen occupying white to create a sense of purification. There is a unique tone to this film visually as well as musically. Randomly if you look at a scene where there are no Kannada dialogues you get a feel that you are not watching a Kannada film. The camera work which is mostly hand held gives out an indication to keep your eyes on the screen. The screenplay is a bit slow in the beginning and over a certain period you do have the feel that the film is not really moving ahead. It is not to get you bored but it does give you the feel that it is lagging and it is a bit overdone at places. Even though there is a sense of thriller here it really does not get you charged so that you get excited. The film follows its own pace and by the interval you have the feel that it is decent but somehow its not that satisfying.
The second half moves at a better pace and it explores and opens up more on the main plot and gives an idea to the audience about the grand purpose of the film. The portions of the journo-duo activism tries to hamper the film which you don't feel like investing much time because the track of revenge drama gets more exciting. It is very natural for anyone to get curiosity on how the two main subplots [activism and revenge] cross path. Screenplay is something which comes handy in creating great possibilities. Adarsh comes up with an unexpected twist which is kind of bit difficult to digest as it comes along but takes some time to play the entire film again in mind to connect to the context. There is this concept of divine intervention which gets me uncomfortable. Adarsh's earlier film "BE Mech" had this and "Shuddi" again seems to refer to that during the climax however it holds relevance.
The cinematography by Andrew brings out the feel of Hollywood style. There seems to be usage of different tones for different sequences. Music by Jesse Clinton is catchy and enough space has been given to the background score. There is significant amount of silence too for effective live sound capture by Nithin Lukose. This film definitely makes it good due to the Sync Sound. Probably the performances too make a difference because of this. Technically this is a much competent film.
The pace may be slow but none of the sequences are out of sync from that main theme that the film stands for. There is no attempt to force in unnecessary bits and is well within the confined boundary. The performances are pretty mature and subtle. No glorification or overdone anywhere. Even the killings are cold blooded and the sufferings are non melodramatic. Lauren Spartano carries the though look throughout the film. Nivedita is a fine actress but unfortunately not many films I see her. Shashank Purushottam , we have watched him in plays and tele serials. Its good to see him on big screen. He is a fine actor and we should see more of his presence in Kannada cinema. Sidhartha Maadhyamika, Sanchari Vijay, Ajay Raj deliver great performances even with limited roles they play.
So Shuddi is worth a watch in-spite of its slow pace at times. It surely will be much talked about film for coming days because of the subject that it touches on and the way it is handled. Well I would not like to tag this to "SupportKannadaFilms" and other usual trump cards that show up on social media. You need to watch it because there is something good that has been created. It may not "Wow" you or entertain you but you will have the feel of watching something satisfying. Congratulations to the whole Shuddi team. Knowing Indian audience you guys probably will go places with this content.
