Recommended by (halfMonkHalfHitman and rakeshbaba)
We’ve watched very few Kannada movies in our life.
As most SI readers know by now, Hindi, Tamil, English and now foreign language films have been the mainstay of our filmi entertainment.
So, when SI readers repeatedly brought up the Kannada film Mungaru Male, we were intrigued as to what could be unique about this film.
We headed to Wiki and were surprised to learn that Mungaru Male featuring a relatively unknown fella by the name Ganesh was a blockbuster hit with boxoffice earning surpassing Rs 75 crore ($1=Rs 48).
That’s a lot of money for a regional language film, particularly Kannada, which has been overshadowed for decades by Hindi, Tamil and Telugu language films even in Karnataka, the South Indian state where Kannada is widely spoken.
During our travels south (no, not South India, we meant Virginia) recently, we purchased the Mungaru Male DVD.
But after a recent traumatic incident (we watched Wanted, Dil Bole Hadippa and Unnaipol Oruvan over the weekend), we were desperate for a change.
Also, we’re mighty curious as to how a Kannada film could gross Rs 75 crore, making it one of the biggest hits in Indian movies in recent years.
A Love Story, What Else
So we’ve been watching Mungaru Male for the last 20 minutes or so.
This one is a love story.
And director Yograj Bhat wastes no time in getting down to the romantic business because ‘love’ happens literally (no kidding) in the opening scene.
The kid Ganesh is a natural in front of the camera. We found him endearing so far.
But the heroine Sanjana Gandhi is pretty mediocre (btw, pretty is not an adjective for mediocre here…we mean pretty and mediocre).
Mungaru Male also features Anant Nag, Sudha Belwadi, Padmaja Rao and Diganth. Except for Anant Nag (who has made forays into Bollywood), the other names are foreign to us.
The dialogs have zing in them. Kinda tongue-in-cheek and hilarious, most of the time.
We’ve already gone past two songs. Onde Onde Sari and Mungaru Male. a short song.
OMG, Anant Nag (who plays the girl Nandhini’s father) just broke a bombshell. Doesn’t augur well for our Pritam (Ganesh).
We’ll update this post after watching the rest of Mungaru Male.
Update
The Mungaru Male story is nothing to write home about.
A very mundane, boy sees girl, falls in love instantly, follows girl around, girl ignores him at first, boy is persistent, girl comes around, Mills & Boonish love story.
Some readers have commented on the picturesque setting as a key factor in the movie’s success.
The picturesque settings of Coorg are alright but not out of the world. We don’t believe it’s a major factor in the movie’s runaway success.
In our view, it’s the solid performance of Ganesh accompanied by above average portrayals by his co-stars, three lovely songs (Anisuthide, Mungaru Maleye Enu Ninna Hanigala Leele and Onde Onde Sari), smooth-flowing, natural and humorous dialogs and the OK screenplay that made this one of the biggest blockbusters in Indian movies.
And of course, the unusual ending.
Tis’ true that Indians, hundreds of millions of whom are miserable in the unyielding hell of their daily lives, long for and are hopelessly addicted to happy endings in movies.
Mungaru Male breaks free from the straitjacket of happy endings and dares to be different.
However addicted Indians are to the pleasing narcotic of happy endings in movies, we presume they too would like to smell the fresh air, at least once in a while.
Mungaru Male makes that possible.
Devdas Too
We’d be remiss if we ignored Devdas’ part in the success.
That was a brilliant move on the part of director Yograj Bhat.
The character of the failed lover Devdas is indelibly etched in the minds and hearts of every Indian movie-goer, from the snowy Himalayan mountains in the north to the rushing seas of Cape Comorin in the South.
And linking Devdas to an abandoned, cuddly, adorable little rabbit and making it an alter ego of our hero was again a neat trick on the part of Yograj Bhat.
Finally, there’s this uniquely Indian thing called stars.
Guess what, they were in perfect alignment for Mungaru Male, Ganesh and Yograj Bhat.
Mungaru Male Review – What Made it Click? added by SearchIndia.com on
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As a leading man, Ganesh has this everyman look-and-feel, that is hard to come by in these days of 6/8 pack abs.
He may not be particularly good looking in the conventional sense, but charming, definitely yes.
His acting, along with some fine songs and great cinematography (beautiful locales of Madikeri) were perhaps responsible for the movie becoming a big hit.
Anant Nag and others are adequate.
Some sequences b/w Ganesh and Anant Nag are hilarious.
The movie came in as a refreshing change and made its mark.
There is no doubt that this movie is going to give you some relief after your recent triple-misadventures.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Some sequences b/w Ganesh and Anant Nag are hilarious.
Got past their initial encounter, the hearing aid, the bombshell news and all.
How do you understand? Are you watching with subtitles??
I didn’t enjoy the movie probably bcoz I don’t understand Kannada that well, so I couldn’t make out if a scene was hilarious or serious…
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: How do you understand? Are you watching with subtitles??
Yes, this one has sub-titles but we are familiar with the language.
BTW, our language arsenal includes Hindi, Tamil and Kannada plus a bit of Telugu.
hmm…nice to see that you are expanding your horizon and reviewing other regional language films as well.
If you are game for it, i can also recommend some good telugu movies that you can watch. they are definitely not as primitive as you might think. After all, a lot of decent tamil movies like pokkiri, santosh subramaniyam and sangali oli were made in telugu originally.
Although i will steer clear of recommending any movies starring Nagarjuna because of obvious reasons.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: If you are game for it, i can also recommend some good telugu movies that you can watch. they are definitely not as primitive as you might think
Go for it.
2. You write: Although i will steer clear of recommending any movies starring Nagarjuna because of obvious reasons.
Well, you do have a sense of humor. 😉 That guy is an embarrassment.
3. You write: nice to see that you are expanding your horizon and reviewing other regional language films as well.
We picked this one after reading about its remarkable box office performance (Rs 75 cr), astonishing for a regional language film featuring almost unknowns.
///But the heroine Sanjana Gandhi is pretty mediocre (btw, pretty is not an adjective for mediocre here…we mean pretty and mediocre).////
Haha, I think you missed this great actress’s performance in our great ‘Steven’ Perarasu’s :'( Thirvanamalai. She is also known as Pooja Gandhi. 😮
By the by, What’s all with these actresses? These shmucks use different names in different regional languages for their tortures. Really makes me sick!!! x-(
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We think Ganesh, music, dialogs and of course Yograj Bhat’s direction made this flick a mega hit.
If you are into exploring Telugu movies, I would recommend Magadheera. Though there is a lot of heroism in the movie, copied in parts from Troy, Gladiator and 300, overall the movie is pretty good. Especially post interval, 1600 AD scenes were picturised really well…
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We vaguely remember reading about the release of Magadheera here.
Watch out for a surprise soon. One clue: Not Magadheera.
I would be shell shocked if it is Arjun, though it’ll be fun to read your review for it. But I guess it is Telugu version of Pokiri??
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: But I guess it is Telugu version of Pokiri??
No.
That’s so 2006. Telugu Pokiri is not even history. It’s Pre-history. Nobody gives a f**k for it now.
My guess is that you are going to watch Arundhati, since you like Anushka, and also, because the 2009 movie is not yet pre-history. One of the better Telugu movies in recent times. And no Nagarjuna of course.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thappu swamy (wrong, sir).
It’s going to be something more interesting.
You are right, we do like Anushka. 😉
Coming to telugu movies, Not all movies of nagarjuna are crap. ‘Shiva’ was a good movie ( He doesnt have much lines in the movie!! 😛 ) .
I didnt like ‘Arundathi’. There was too much over the top acting, Loud swearing, shouting. It was like old ramsey movies with some new age graphics.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: ‘Shiva’ was a good movie ( He doesnt have much lines in the movie!! 😛 ) .
Thank God. Hope he didn’t have too much time on the screen too. 😉
well magadheera was good in parts…majorly the pre-historic parts. However, i would recommend:
Godavari (cute movie)
Kshana kshanam (RGV movie *ing sridevi – one of the best movies)
Athadu (one of the better entertainers)
Anasuya (nice thriller *ing bhoomika chawla)
Okkadu (original version of Ghilli and I think, far better than Ghilli)
Arundhati (if you can excuse all the screaming, loudness,blood and gore, it is a pretty compelling story at the end of the day)
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thanks.
Netflix has only Godavari and Athadu.
We’ll watch both soon.
Mungaru Male is the only kannada movie I saw with the help of subtitles…I liked the movie…loved the locales of Karnataka shown in the movie even more…
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Glad you liked the picture.
We’ll update this post today.
The songs were and still are favorites…especially Anisuthide and the title track both sung by Sonu Nigam
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We liked Anisuthide and Onde Onde Sari.
what are the other kannada movies that are good to watch?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Sorry, we’re not that familiar with Kannada movies.
Some very old Kannada movies you might enjoy are Puttana Kanagal’s Naagarahaavu, Girish Karnad’s Samaskara, Girish Kasravalli’s Ghattashraddha, Bangarada Manushya et al.
>>Okkadu (original version of Ghilli and I think, far better than Ghilli)
No way Okkadu is better than Ghilli. Ghilli was far superior to Okkadu even for people who saw Okkadu first…
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Okkadu? Doesn’t sound like a nice name, does it? 😉
Got it 😉
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Wunderbar.
it is okkadu.. not OAKkadu, you dirty fella..
Ghillli (with 3 ls) had Prakashraj’s best role, IMO.. better than his award-winning Kancheepuram role.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: it is okkadu.. not OAKkadu, you dirty fella..
Okka sari cheppandi, miru yemi matladuthunnaru? (what are you talking about?)
yemi yekkada un vaayila pakoda (telugu sounding gibberish)
SearchIndia.com Responds:
No pakoda in vaayile …just salad with Feta cheese for lunch.
The film has not ended still? 😉
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Finished it yesterday.
We promise to update it later today.
“We’ve watched few Kannada movies in our life.”
You have not described about the Kannada movie which you loved the most – the one had brain transplantation to heroine from hero as its theme..! 😉
Try reviewing it one of these days 😀
SearchIndia.com Responds:
That was from Seetha Ramu.
The brain transplant was from dead hero to heroine, who goes mad after the shock .
After the brain transplant, the heroine starts acting fighting like her dead lover.
Absolutely Hilarious.
Hard to get hold of the Seetha Ramu DVD here. Very old movie.
We promise to update it later today.
before Dev D or after?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Before Dev D.
Too many irons in the fire.
Will get to Dev D soon.
Music was a big plus that made it click. Music director Mano Murthy tend to break away from the noisy-beat-driven music (that was trend at that time) to more soft, clean, melodious numbers..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Listening to Anisuthide in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDTQJs6LbHM – this song’s tune appears to be very similar to an old Ilayaraja number http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FdYevftNXo. No wonder it was a hit song.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We don’t think so.
BTW, we’ve seen Pagalil Oru Iravu, one of the follies of our youth. 😉
can you give the review of roja,indian
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Parkalam (we’ll see).
We’ve seen both movies.