Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi on OTT: From good one-time watch to out-dated cringe-fest; Ganesh film leaves audiences divided

In the last couple of years, every time a Ganesh starrer released and failed to ignite the box office, the major complaint one heard from audiences was that they were bored of seeing the actor do the same thing over and over again. The Kannada actor’s forte is known to be romantic comedies with emotional content and great songs, in a narrative that makes audiences laugh or cry with him, as the case maybe. When reproduced in films these days, it’s called Vintage Ganesh.

Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi movie review: Ganesh is on auto-pilot mode in tale that is as old as time 

Interestingly enough, it is exactly this aspect of the Golden Star that clicked with audiences when his film Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi released in theatres. It helped that the Kannada film industry was just making baby steps of recovery after a 7-month slump, with audiences keen for a ‘family entertainer’. The film had a reasonably good theatrical run, although, after a point, a few shows were just being retained to get Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi to the box office milestone of 100 days.

The film dropped on OTT on November 29 – it is now available on Sun NXT – and ever since there’s been a steady stream of reviews from those who saw it only now. Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi is, undoubtedly, leaving netizens divided.

Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi netizen reviews

While some are calling it a superb family entertainer that is a good one-time watch and are praising the songs, overwhelmingly negative comments are also pouring in now. For starters, many audiences fail to see how Krishnam Pranayam Sakhi became a big hit. The body shaming of a girl in a ‘comedy’ scene of the film is also being called out.

Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi director Srinivasa Raju reacts to film’s success: 'I predicted this...' 

Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi’s far from novel content, of a rich boy falling in love with girl from a lower economic stratum, and then forgetting her due to retrograde amnesia, was not the major selling point of the film. Instead, director Srinivasa Raju chose to have the music do the talking and the songs by composer Arjun Janya were all chartbusters.