Film: Hottegagi Genu Battegagi
Cast: Anant Nag, Radhika Chetan
Director Narendra Babu
Rating: 2.5 stars
Dressing a successful Hollywood script into the Kannada spectrum requires courage. But if the result is Hottegagi Genu Battegagi, a remake of 2015 American film, The Intern starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, it clearly needs ounces of unimaginative thinking. Director Narendra Babu seems to just have evidenced abundance of the trait.
We have seen a few examples of directors trying, and in some cases, successfully imitate a Hollywood script, bringing in nativity (the 1996 Tamil comedy Avvai Shanmugi inspired by Mrs Doubtfire), and in a few cases, an announced frame to frame copy (the 2016 comedy-drama Oopri, official remake of French film The Intouchables). But Hottegagi Genu Battegagi will stand tall for a while to have managed to woo inspiration into undesirable territory.
To go to the story, Anant Nag plays the role of Shyam Prasad. Leading a retired life, he applies for a job as a senior intern with a fashion start-up run by Shravya (Radhika Chetan). He joins but as a senior citizen, he is initially considered a hindrance. But slowly, he manages to impress everybody. Circumstances lead to Shyam Prasad doubling as Shravya's chauffer. That's when he gets to understand her lifestyle and about her live-in relationship. How does he react when he gets to know that the man in her life is cheating on her, and what will be her reaction, especially when she is pregnant. Will Shyam Prasad support her and how he stands by her forms the crux of Hottegaagi Genu Battegagi.
The film was probably made keeping Anant Nag’s flair in perspective. While he delivers, the director fails to remind himself that inspiration comes, but if you make a portrait of it, it will never come even remarkably close to the original. Inspiration is after all intangible.
The concept looks good on table, but does not work well on screen. Except for Anant Nag's portrayal, others fail to add life to the story. Radhika Chetan's role becomes stagnant and she could not create much an impact on the veiwers.
Music is dull and nothing much comes out of the cinematographer. Overall, Hottegagi Genu Bategagi ,a poor immitation of a Hollywood does not releate with the audeince.