In the present scenario, if there is abundant talent, that is not enough. The director of Langoti Man – Sanjotha Bhandari (her second film in Kannada) suffers from protracted narration despite having abundant talent. Sanjotha Bhandari and her team members have appreciable quality, but they lacked fine-tuning at the editing table.
This film Langoti Man deserves half an hour of pruning of the subject narration, as there are some unwanted and inconsequential situations.
First of all, the director has given an answer to what ‘Langoti Man’ is – Lankapurada Govindacharya Theertha is the explanation for ‘Langoti’, but at the same time, there is a bit of disgrace to this ancient underwear, which was not required on the silver screen.
The war on the undergarment is quite okay, and how it is going in the wrong direction, helping other countries’ investments, has not been touched so far. But for that aspect, the ancient culture taking brickbats could have been avoided.
There is fun at places, but this turns very serious as a group of thieves and a psycho cause huge losses. The three layers in the film – the eldest of the family compelling his grandson Theertha to wear ‘Langoti’, the insult the grandson faces for this, is one part. The second part of the film is the murder mystery, and the third one is the psychic havoc that even draws the cop into the cumbersome situation. Folded with too many situations by the director, this takes the audience through 164 minutes in the cinema halls.
In a nutshell, the Brahmin family Theertha, a commerce graduate and chartered accountant, is firm on not wearing the ‘Langoti’, but the promise he made to his father on his deathbed forces him to continue wearing it, and he lives with his very traditional grandfather.
Aware of the latest underwear brands in society, Theertha accidentally finds ‘The Passion’, which becomes a turning point in his mood and moments in life. The underwear, in fact, is part of a murder case. As the narration moves, Theertha gets labeled a rapist, kidnapper, cheater, and fraud as situations pull him in.
Now, Theertha has to prove that he is innocent, and he has one chance to do it. How he struggles further to clear his name follows in the later part of the protracted narration.
Akash Rambo, as the protagonist, has a very good future, and he has taken on a very strong role in his debut film. Sneha is quite okay, Samhita Vinya as a cop is good. Dheerendra S, as the grandfather, is a very promising character artist for Kannada cinema. Mahalakshmi, Huli Karthik as the psychic, and Gilli Nata give admirable support.
Sumed’s music, according to the situations, is quite convincing. Ravi Verma’s (Gangu) cinematography is also adequate.
A film good in content, protracted in narration, is the only flaw of this film.
