Karmanye Vadhikaraste movie review: This debut feature is novel, enterprising but deserving of better execution

2.5/5

Story:

Senior archeologist Suryakanth's death under mysterious circumstances triggers a search for an ancient stone buried deep in a jungle. A group of youngsters sets off on this alluring journey but soon finds evil cops, assassins, and other deadly forces in contention - it becomes clear that there is more to this search than meets the eye. Who will get their hands on the stone in this complicated cat and mouse chase?

Review:

Kannada cinema's recent influx of talent has been conceiving a wide variety of content, particularly in the mystery/thriller genre. The past couple of months alone has witnessed a number of filmmakers make their debuts and explore many interesting ideas/subject matters in their own unique ways. While the previous week saw young actor Chandra Keerthi impress everyone with his solid directorial debut in Tootu Madike, the current one has brought along Srihari Anand's engaging adventure-thriller Karmanye Vadhikarasthe. 

Featuring many fresh faces, Karmanye Vadhikarasthe is a blend of mythology, astro-spiritualty, and adventure, along with a smattering of others: Srihari Anand, the writer, succeeds mainly in seamlessly stitching all the subgenres together but falters in inducing the right energy into his narrative. While the concept, in itself, seems novel when explained, the execution on screen is amateurish which doesn't allow the film to be engaging throughout. There are traces, though, of an attempt to make the high-brow concept tick, and these sequences essentially feature in the first half. The second half, however, is a colossal mess that could have easily wrecked the whole ship for the director, if not for the rewarding final moments. 

Another issue with Karmanye Vadhikarasthe is the tone it adopts. Perhaps it could be due to the complexity of his story that the writer makes his characters almost spell out every detail through dialogue. The result, of course, is that the film feels overly verbose and almost soap opera(ish) because the same characters do not seem to belong to the storyworld and instead are conversing with the audience. The lack of a substantial budget too is apparent in Karmanye Vadhikarasthe because the action sequences and production design feel underwhelming in most parts. 

Coming to the cast of the film, one would reckon that the film warranted a more dependable central cast. While Prateek Vajramuni and Divya Gowda try their best, and granted that the script offers them very little nuance to play with, the performances don't carry the appropriate energy. Ugramm Manju is the senior-most of the lot but he too plays his dicey cop a touch too loud. A special shoutout must go to the makers for not caricaturing Dolma (Nepal actress Tsering Tsemda), the character of Chinese origin in the film, or making it a token symbol in the narrative - instead, Srihari Anand makes Dolma an integral part of the scheme of things.

Verdict:

Karmanye Vadhikarasthe is a valiant attempt, no doubt, towards conceiving a world that is unique and interesting at the same time. Thanks to the runtime, which runs close to 2 hours 5 minutes, the sluggish screenplay doesn't feel too overbearing but the film would have definitely benefited from a tighter script. The merits mostly feature in the first half, as pointed out already, and the tacky second half could prove to be the film's undoing. However, if you were to spare a few hours to test out the newest breed of Kannada filmmakers, maybe take a chance on Karmanye Vadhikarasthe!