Demo Piece had raised a lot of curiosity among cine-goers with its interesting title. The story is about Harsha (Bharath Bopanna), a free-spirited college student who wants to lead a fast life, but is restricted by his disciplinarian father.
This makes Harsha get a part-time job, through which he earns good money. But he invests his earnings on betting in cricket and loses all the money. He gets unlucky in his final year exam too. A situation pushes him to take extreme steps, which also bring a drastic change in his life.
Whether this U-turn in Harsha’s life is for good or bad is revealed later, and brings us to a message-oriented climax.
Director Vivek seems to have had a good one-line story, which he has not tried to develop further. It is all about the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of Harsha’s character -- how he led his life when he was struggling for money, and was still happy with friends, and how it all the changes when he gets into a position where he can fulfil all his needs, but he is not happy.
In between, the director plays the sentiment card between parents and son, and his love interest, college life, friendship and more. But the film does test everyone’s patience. Especially, the repetitive scenes and the cliched dialogues, which we have heard for years, become irritating to the ears after a point.
Bharat Bopanna, who is making a transition from teleserials to playing a lead hero on the silver screen, gets an opportunity to walk, talk, fight, dance, and sing songs, and everything else that an actor looks to play as the hero. But nothing of these makes an impact.
The would have worked better as a serial, and the same holds true for the lead actor too. Sonal Monteiro is the film’s heroine, but her role is brought down to a special appearance, although she does get to be part of a song.
Rekha, of Sparsha fame, plays the hero’s mother, but she doesn’t sync with the character. Chandrachud, who initially comes out as a strong antagonist, does not carry it forward, while the rest of the characters need no mention. It almost appears that the director considers the film a ‘demo piece’, a product that he wants to try and test on the viewers.
Director: Vivek A Cast: Bharath Bopanna, Sonal Monteiro and Rekha |