Sandalwood filmmakers should stick to titling their films in Kannada. Otherwise, they may end up misleading their audience. Just like lyricist-turned-director Ghouse Peer has done.
While a viewer may think that his Sharp Shooter is on somebody's skill with a gun, Peer seems to have done a film to show his shooting skills with the camera. So, in his sincere effort to excel in filmmaking, he has made an average outing in his directorial debut.
Having been in the making for quite a while, the film has segments of comedy with action at moments, which surprisingly fits together too. But Peer’s monumental botch up comes in his screenplay, miscalculated comic timing and character development.
While there are signs that the film is influenced by a Korean film, it just manages to make it on its own, blending tongue-in-cheek humour with action-packed screenplay.
The pace of the first half is slow and it catches up in the second half, but it does not manage to keep the audience seated till the end.
The story revolves around JK aka Jadera Kannappa (Diganth) who discovers from his mother (a role played by Lakshmi) that he suffers from night blindness. Hence, he is forced to leave his hometown and come to the city, in search of a girl, when he accidentally meets Nando aka Nandini, a lawyer (Sangeetha Chauhan), who has nyctophobia (fear of darkness). The two are drawn towards each other. Though Nandini shares her problem, JK is afraid to open up to her with his troubles.
Meanwhile, JK is accidentally linked to the shooting a don and he is chased by the police and the don's son (Lokesh Saurav) while Nandini asks JK to kill the gangster who had killed her parents. Will JK prove his innocence and win over his love forms the rest of the story, which comes with twists and turns.
Diganth as JK shows a slightly different performance from what we have seen so far. This being his 25th film, he has put in an effort to balance comedy and action, and it shows.
Though Diganth shares a good chemistry with the pretty Sangeetha Chauhan, the young actress isn't in sync with her character. She has to put in a lot of effort to emote convincingly.
For Chikkanna, the role does not demand much effort and is a cakewalk. The other supporting actors like Lakshmi, Sudharani, Satya and Achyuth Kumar, Saurav Lokesh, Mithra do easy roles. Aindrita Ray adds to the glam factor with her special song Kunte Bille, which is enjoyable.
As for the technical aspects, cinematographer Karunakar does not manage to put together anything spectacular. Music director, MS Shiva Santosh cuts an average album with a couple of melodies.
As a romantic comedy, Sharp Shooter might manage to make the audience laugh but it just ain’t sharp enough to pierce hearts.