It is one of the few films that has been over-hyped.
This film directed by debutante Sumana Kittur and based on Agni Sridhar’s novel — Daadaagiriya Dinagalu , fails to meet expectations of the audience.
The major drawback of the film is that it is too narrative. The introductory scene of Vijay is far from convincing. Had the director explained about his background for his banishment from Bangalore, it would have served the purpose. Editor Deepu S Kumar failed to edit it aptly. A few scenes, especially the lorry scene, seem to be overlapping in the preintermission.
Other scene where Vijay agrees to eliminate Dharma for a cable business and abusing MLA for trying to vacate a slum. It is not clear why he was ready to kill a person who did nothing to him.
Let us assume that he was influenced by a politician.
But he refuses to oblige the same politician who even offers Rs 3 lakh per each family as compensation for vacating the slum.
The other drawback is lack of strong villain.
Suresh who plays the politician looks like a drunkard and not a politician. Had the director selected any other artistes for this role, the outcome might have been better.
Shuba Punja looks beautiful. Unfortunately, she has nothing to do in this film except kissing on Vijay’s forehead once or twice and shaking her body to a Hindi film music at a bar. Umasri has provided a good support. Her dialogue delivery is very good.
It is all about Balakrishna alias Slum Bala (Vijay) from Vinayaka Slum. Police department decides to banish rowdy elements from Bangalore to ensure trouble-free elections to State Assembly. Bala is one of the rowdies and Police Inspector Shantaram (Shashikumar) advises him to leave Bangalore.
Bala goes to Mumbai and works as a bouncer at a bar where Mallige (Subha Punja) works as live band artiste.
Meanwhile, Shantaram asks Bala to return to Bangalore to help Prasad Nayak (B Suresh), a politician. Nayak assigns Bala to kill Cable Manja alias Bhadravathi Manja (Dharma) for supporting his opponent in the election.
Nayak's friend promises not only to cancel the police order against Bala but also to handover the cable business to the latter. Bala accomplishes the task but circumstances compel Shantaram to eliminate Bala.
Slum Bala is a take on politics.
Y Maheswara Reddy maheswarareddy@epmltd.com