Here is a clever and clean narrator, Puneeth Nagaraj. The homework the director had done before coming to the sets deserves applause. How he takes up the second half is filled with thrills and suspicion moving from one to another is appreciable. In addition, the calm and quiet way of narrating the screenplay with sensible dialogues, plus a dark background in most of the scenes, shows a promising director has emerged in the Kannada filmdom.
The fine selection of artists—Anoop Revanna, Aravind Rao, Dhanya Ramkumar, Mythri Jaggi, Bala Rajawadi, Rajesh Nataranga, and Krishna Hebbale—makes the director’s work pretty much easier in this snake and ladder game of thrills and entertaining elements.
The film ‘Hide and Seek’ starts with a kidnapping. It is billed as the organizational intelligence game that follows clever killing without leaving any clue. All possible care is taken care for kidnapping and murder. The police department goes clueless. Even at the end of the film, the cop Aravind Rao surrendering in his words to the protagonist Roy is a showcase of criminals superseding the police.
Hasini and Harini are kidnapped and kept in a dark place. As time passes, we come to know they are daughters of a big business empire. The siblings – Krishna Hebbale and Rajesh Nataranga at loggerheads and are responsible for the kidnapping of their daughters. It is all because of the 20 percent of the shares in the name of Hasini and Harini. While Harini is dumb, Hasini (Dhanya Ramkumar) makes frantic efforts to dislodge from the hands of kidnappers. In the end, she succumbs to the goodness of the kidnapper that is Roy (played by Anoop Revanna).
How Roy misled the police department and Hasini in achieving his goals forms the interesting part of the film that the police turn mute spectators to it.
The second half is filled with intriguing elements. Anoop Revanna is cool and composed. He delivers his skill more with dialogues and intelligent scenes for him. Dhanya Ramkumar, there are certainly some positive aspects worth acknowledging. Aravind Rao, a seasoned cop without uniform, is one of the mainstays of the film. His dialogue delivery style and ability to emote earn him very good appreciation. Rajesh Nataranga, Krishne Hebbale, Raksha Umesh (Dumb character), and Bala Rajawadi have given a neat performance.
Sandy Addanki’s adequate music, two montage songs, and cinematography of Rijo P Jhon are additional plus points of the film.
For all thrill and mystery film lovers, ‘Hide and Seek’ is a safe bet.
