‘Powder’ film overview: Diganth and a troupe of quirky characters ship a novel dramedy

Diganth and Dhanya Ramkumar in ‘Powder’.
| Photograph Credit score: Anand Audio/YouTube

Kannada cinema has had administrators approaching comedy in several methods. If one seems in the beginning of the millennium, Yogaraj Bhat thrived together with his refreshing dialogues that mirrored the carefree perspective of children. Not many might replicate the magic Bhat weaved over the college-going crowd. 

Guruprasad arrived as a shock and gave a definite contact to his two darkish comedies starring Jaggesh: Mata and Eddelu Manjunatha. Within the early 90s, folks loved the unmistakable flavour of comedy in Anant Nag’s Ganesha collection. And within the 80s, Kashinath made heads flip together with his uncompromising strategy to intercourse comedies.

Other than some filmmakers who got here as a welcome change to revive the style, comedy in Kannada cinema within the final 20 years has suffered from stereotypical dealing with of humour. Sadhu Kokila continues to play insufferable loud characters whereas not so way back, Rangayana Raghu would get wasted in poorly-written, exaggerated humour.

The dry spell of fine comedy dramas within the Kannada movie business ended with Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare in 2023, a campus drama that broke new grounds in manufacturing. And scorching on its heels, Powder, directed by Janardhan Chikkanna and written by Deepak Venkateshan isn’t your common comedy drama.

Sharmiela Mandre in ‘Powder’.
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

Soorya (Diganth) works at a grocery store in Mysuru, and he shares a room with Karan (Anirudh Acharya). Soorya is making an attempt to woo again his ex Nithya (Dhanya Ramkumar), a nurse. The trio learns concerning the presence of medicine value crores stuffed inside talcum powder containers inside Soorya’s retailer.

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They determine to show wealthy in a single day by promoting the medication, and that brings them into confrontation with drug vendor Annachi (Rangayana Raghu) and his rival Sulemaan (Gopalkrishna Deshpande). The drug racket has a world connection, with a drug lord from China calling the pictures. 

The truth that the humour is generated from the idiosyncratic behaviour of the movie’s characters somewhat than overt reliance on dialogues is a plus. Actually, the movie doesn’t go overboard with its dialogues, and Trilok Trivikram’s witty traces present the best impact due to their good timing within the scenes. Regardless of affected by a pacing challenge, Powder isn’t boring, and successfuly swings like a pendulum between quirky and grownup comedy.

Sharmeila Mandre is placing together with her motion strikes as ‘Make-up’ Mallika, a harmful murderer who can kill folks with make-up supplies. Rangayana Raghu and Gopalkrishna Deshpande shine because the poles-apart drug sellers shine, with the previous being hilarious together with his Tamil-mixed Kannada.

Even when Powder doesn’t insult the concept of a comic book caper with extreme concepts, it fails to be fun riot. The less-eventful first half looks like a misplaced alternative, even when Diganth salvages it together with his depiction of a naive teenager. Powder springs to life within the second half, and the episode displaying the hunt for the talcum powder containers is a hoot. Nagabhushana, because the spoof of a well-liked Kannada YouTuber, delivers the knockout punch.

Director Janardhan Chikkanna and his technical groups triumph within the final quarter-hour. Expectedly, characters hallucinate, and weird issues start to unfold. The director’s visible model — helped by cinematographers Advaitha Gurumurthy and Shanthi Sagar H G — to current this psychedelic world is spectacular. Even when the influence of the visible results is a bit overwhelming, you might be left astounded on the efforts behind it.

Powder is presently operating in theatres