Pannaga Bharana’s Happy New Year is an exploration of happiness as a fundamental aspect in our lives, without waiting to celebrate. His debut venture goes through five stories and navigates us into lives of people many of us might relate to.
A new approach in narrative storytelling, Pannaga captures simple yet intrinsic details in a film that has an ensemble cast. But, what is worthy to note is that he does not lose track in the melee.
The story starts with several characters beginning with RJ Danny (Dhananjay), who is making sure to keep his girlfriend (Charmie) happy. Raghavendra, a police officer is upset with the fact that he can’t give time to his wife (Sonu) and daughter.
Then there is a story about childless couple Venkataram (Saikumar and Varalakshmi (Sudharani), Harsha (Diganth), a carefree person and his date are destined to meet Vismaya (Srusti Patil) in Pattaya.
Last but not the least is how the life of an orphan Kaurava (BC Patil), a rowdy’s life changes when Esther comes into his life. How all these people get to a celebrate the coming of the new year is indeed interlaced with enough entertainment.
Pannaga should be appreciated for not taking the conventional route of filmmaking. Each story among the five has its own highlight but the film is not without avoidable errors.
He could have worked on a tight script, holding the audience till the end, but he does get unsettled with situations and their placement.
It is refreshing to see Dhananjay in an all new avatar of an RJ, as is Sruthi Hariharan. Vijay Raghavendra and Sonu blend well in their respective characters while Diganth shows he is at his best. This is Srusti’s debut, and she pulls it off with in delight.
But the highlight is Saikumar’s role along with Sudharani.
Raghu Dixit’s music is great and so is the cinematography by Shreesha Kuduvalli. Happy New Year has a series of stories that can be felt within, and it is left up to the people to self analyse.