'Kool...Sakkath Hot Maga' (Kannada)
Director: Ganesh
Cast: Ganesh, Sana Khan, Sharan, Sadhu Kokila, Sangeeta Shetty, Deepa Shetty, Ramakrishna, Dattanna, Kishori Ballal and Ganesh Rao
It seems Ganesh was destined to direct his second home production ‘Kool’. As it happened within two days of the shooting, the film's director Mussanje Mahesh walked out of the project citing creative differences. Since the whole unit was in Ooty for the outdoor shoot, alternative arrangements were made immediately and Ganesh decided to wear the director's hat himself.
Ganesh is one of the top stars of the industry and it was a risk he had taken at that point of time. Nevertheless his fans had a lot of expectation from the film, mainly because his debut production venture ‘Maleyali Joteyali’ directed by Preetham Gubbi had become a hit.
Fans thought that the lovable romantic star will not fail this time as well. But ‘Kool...Sakkath Hot Maga’ couldn’t' live up to their expectations.
What is wrong with Ganesh's first directorial venture? The first flaw is the story. Before the release of the movie, Ganesh had said in interviews that the writer, who is from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, wrote nearly 15 versions to get the right tone in the story. And Ganesh himself scripted screenplay and some dialogues.
The story, which has shades of Hindi film ‘Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai’, does not have a strong platform, the dialogues fail to make an impact and the screenplay is the weakest part of the movie.
Ganesh made a mistake by agreeing to make a film on a story that fails to engage the audiences. He has also included some unnecessary sequences to please the brand advertisers of the movie. The comedy scenes make a good start, but as the film progresses, they become irritating.
Despite having country's top technicians like Rathnavelu, who had worked for Rajnikanth's ‘Robot’ and Anthony, who edited ‘Ghajini’, the film fails to garner attention. Hari Krishna has composed some good tunes, which have been shot well in Jordan and on the sets.
In the movie, Rahul and his group of friends are disinterested in studies. They hangout in college campus and watch girls there. Rahul gets attracted to Kajal who is hot tempered. After initial hiccups, the two start liking each other.
The story takes a usual turn when Rahul dies. Following his death Kajol moves to the serene Hasiru Ghatta to deal with his death, but there she meets Manohar Jaraganahalli, a Rahul look alike.
Manohar falls in love with Kajol, but the lady says she cannot love anyone other than Rahul. Finally, after several twists and turns it is revealed that Rahul, who had become a victim of a conspiracy, faked his death to unravel the secrets behind the murderous attacks on him.
As an actor Ganesh shines, but you miss the punchy dialogues which made him popular among moviegoers. His comedy timing remains the best in the film.
Bollywood actress Sana Khan doesn't fit the bill as she remains expressionless in most of the sequences. Sharan and Sadhu Kokila bring in a few laughs, but nothing new in it. Other veteran artists do not have much to do in terms of performances.
The technical crew has done their job perfectly, but nothing can be recognised much because of a bad story.
‘Kool’ fails to bring in some cool breeze in this hot summer. At the most it is just an average affair.