Like films, I categorize plays
as well as popular and parallel.
In the popular category, there has to be
something dramatic or stagy in every scene
there's little room for realism and
visuals are shown through dialogues.
for instance, if there is a blooody battle, the battle need not
happen on the stage, it can be built only through dialogues.
But cinema is different.
Visual story telling is important here
without which it gives the audience a feeling
of watching a play that is shot on camera.
Hello, I'm Kairam Vaashi and today I'm reviewing
Kaviraj's "Kaalidaasa Kannada Meshtru".
Kaalidaasa is a Kannada
teacher in a government school.
The film opens with TV news channels reporting
how big Kaalidaasa's protest has become.
If you watch this film's trailer, you'll
understand the reason for the protest
but why Kaalidasa took to this protest
is the important plot of this film.
Although the screenplay is not
very interesting, it's neat.
There is a personal conflict in the first half
and the way that conflict is resolved was fresh
There is a "public conflict" in the second which is not
resolved per-se in the film and has been left open.
Personally, I detest watching kids dying (or being killed)
in films but the way this film executes it is impressive
what I liked the most was tht they didn't potray it as suicide
nor was there desperation to cash-in on a kid's death.
which made me feel this film has
its heart in the right place.
The biggest problem in this film is
that there is barely any craft at play.
The way scenes are written, staged
and performed are extremely artificial
barring Jaggesh's comedy which I'll talk about later.
This Kaalidaasa was born in 1983, mind you, Jaggesh plays
Kaalidaasa here. Meghana Gaonkar, as his wife is a miscast.
The reason for thier marriage is neither
believable, nor is anything shown.
Infact the way her character is written is weird.
She's behind money,
while her husband is on the hospital bed
she's more interested in her's son's scores than
his development due to which she faces a loss
and the closure her character gets seems
to be more convenient than just/natural.
There's no competition for Jaggesh in comedy.
although the style of comedy in the scene where he waits for
the school application or the interview is his regular,
 its still nevertheless entertaining.
And although he hardly gets any screen space,
Tabla Nani's comedy worked well for me.
Last year's "Sarkari Hi. Pra. Shaale" deal with a somewhat similar
subject, but the "cinema" that we saw in that, is grossly amiss here.
Equal education for all and a new
education system are Kaalidaasa's demands
unfortunately, there's nothing new
in how this film "educated" us.
I don't look at films as good or bad,
I only look at them as films which
worked for me or which didn't
however, thanks to films that have released
lately, I've made a new category for myself
"just-kill-me films"
This film may or may not work for you,
but it certainly won't take your life.
Anyway, if you are someone who'd attend a boring
lecturer's class just for the subject, may be you can...
