Chandu - 2003 DVD $14.99

Chandu Kannada – A Crazy Guy

Starring: Sudeep, Sonia Agarwal, Chitra Shenoy, Sadhu Kokila, Avinash, Siri, Srinath, Ramesh Bhat, Lohithaswa,
Arun Sagar, Umashree, Sana, Chethan, Amoolya, Master Kishan
Director: Arun Prasad
Producer: Sa Ra Govindu
Music Dir: Guru Kiran
Lyricist: V. Nagendra Prasad
Singers: Anuradha Sriram, Udit Narayan, Guru Kiran, Rajesh, Sowmya, Sudeep
Distributor: Sri Ganesh Video
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama

Synopsis

A wounded man, Manohar, is carried to the home of his brother, Damodar, a notorious rowdy in Hyderabad. He had been beaten up by Chandu (Sudeep), from Karnataka. Damodar sends his men to the College to find and to beat Chandu to a pulp, but he comes on his own, and says that his friend, Naresh, who was number one in sports, had made the mistake of playing against Manohar, who was the Apollo College Champion. When Manohar did not think he would win, he beat up Naresh so badly that he would probably never walk again. Chandu wanted Manohar to experience the pain that he had inflicted on Naresh. Damodara and his men attack Chandu, but Chandu ends up by chasing them into the street where he is victorious in the fight. There he meets a girl, Vidya (Sonia Agarwal), to whom he speaks in Kannada. When he goes home, his parents ask him to leave the house, as he is always getting into trouble by fighting. His father (Lohithaswa) has arranged for him to stay with his sister, Shobha (Sana), and his brother-in-law, (Ramesh Bhat) in Bangalore, and attend college there, and be “straightened out” by his brother-in-law.
Vidya announces to the family with whom she is staying that she will not stay in Hyderabad, because of the fighting she has just seen, and that she will return to Bangalore.
When Chandu arrives in Bangalore, he is welcomed by Shobha, Kumar and their two young children, Akki (Amoolya) and her brother, Bablu (Master Kishan). His arrival causes excitement in the neighbourhood. The girl who lives next door announces his arrival to her college chums, including Vidya. At college, he makes friends with Clinton (Arun Sagar), another student. However, Vidya avoids him, and hides her face behind a book so that he cannot see her. Then one day, at the temple, a girl on crutches falls, going up the steps. Vidya sees Chandu pick the girl up, carry her up the steps of the temple, then he takes her back to where her crutches fell, and helps her to get up and walk away. Chandu then meets Vidya (with who he has fallen in love), and asks why she is avoiding him – she asks him if he is a hooligan – he tells her why he was fighting, she agrees that he was in the right, and they become good friends.
She enlists Chandu’s help for the romance of her “cousin brother”, who is in love with Swathi, the daughter of a Ashok Patil (Avinash), a multimillionaire, who opposes his daughter’s romance. Chandu agrees to help. But then one day, Vidya becomes very angry with Chandu, because she sees him looking at her waist. She tells Chandu she does not want to have anything more to do with him, despite his protestations that he loves her. However, she still needs Chandu to help unite Mahesh and Swathi...

Songs:
1. Oh Raniye
2. Kanyakumari Yaara
3. Sontada Vishaya4. Avala Vulavenege

Released Year: 2003
Running Time: 135 minutes/Colour/Kannada

Cast:
Sudeep ... Chandu alias Chandrashekar
Sonia Agarwal ... Vidya
Siri ... Soumya (Vidya's cousin)
Srinath ... Vidya's father
Ramesh Bhat ... Kumar (Chandu's brother-in-law)
Lohithaswa ... Chandu's father
Avinash ... Swathi's father
Arun Sagar ... Clinton (Chandu's friend)
Sadhu Kokila ... Servent Thimma
Umashree ... Mary (Women's hostel warden)
Chitra Shenoy ... Vidya's mother
Sana ... Chandu's sister
Chethan ... Soori
Amoolya ... Akki (Chandu's daughter-in-law)
Master Kishan ... Bablu (Chandu's son-in-law)

Review

This film has a similar story to the 2000 Tamil film “Kushi”, with Vijay and Jyothika, which was remade in Telugu as “Kushi” (2001) with Pawan Kalyan and Bhumika Chawla; in Hindi as “Khushi” (2003) with Fardeen Khan and Kareena Kapoor; and in Kannada as “Eno Onthara” (2011), with Ganesh and Priyamani. These films are all good, and all well worth watching, with each of the actors telling the same story, but in slightly different ways.
However, the beginning of ”Chandu”, how Chandu and Vidya come together and become friends – and the ending of “Chandu”, what happens to the two romances: they are both different.

Sudeep is always excellent in the roles he plays. Here we see him as an Action Hero at the start of the film, then as a kind and loveable character, and we also see his sense of comedy. If Sudeep stars, then the film is worth watching. We see Sonia Agarwal, who has acted mainly in Tamil films, here in her second film appearace: she is excellent and convincing as the heroine. The rest of the cast are excellent. I think that Amoolya and Master Kishan deserve a special mention, as the two children who conspire to help their uncle in his romance. Umashree is good as the warden of the girls’ student hostel, and Siri has a small but important role near the end as Soumya. Sadhu Kokila provides some comedy near the end of the film
The songs are good, and appropriate. “Oh Raniye” as a love-song with several different backgrounds, including a Holiday Theme Park. “Kanyakumari Yaara” is a boys versus girls basketball game. “Sontada Vishaya” is a comedy song, where Chandu sings that the waist is dangerous, and “Avala Vulavenege” is a song where he sings about love.

4 stars

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