Chellata Kannada

Starring: Ganesh, Rekha Vedavyas, Devaraj, Avinash, Komal Kumar, Rangayana Raghu, Mohan Juneja,
Tennis Krishna, Umashree
Director: M.D. Sridhar
Producer: Pradeep, Jagdish Kotyan
Music Dir: Gurukiran
Lyricist: Goturi, Kaviraj, V. Nagendra Prasad,
Singers: Murali Mohan, Shamita, Udit Narayan, Nanditha, Haneef, Gurukiran, Chetana
Distributor: Sri Ganesh Video
Genre: Drama, Romance

Remake of Puli Kalyanam Malayalam

Synopsis

Rudranna (Devaraj) lives with his mother and his young sister. He is a supplier of dynamite for use in quarries, and also of fire-crackers (a term used in the film for all sorts of fireworks, including rockets). One day, a little boy asks for Rs. 2. He slaps the little boy, and tells him he should be studying, not begging. The little boy tells him that he is begging for money to study. Rudra takes him home, and adopts him. One day, Rudra has set dynamite charges when the little lad walks into the area. Rudra runs to save him, and in doing so, he is injured and loses the use of his right arm. The little boy says he will be his right hand. He grows up, he becomes an engineer, Ganesh (Ganesh).
Gopal (Komal Kumar), who lives with his crazy grandmother (Umashree), has just got married, but she will not let him consummate his marriage, as a Swami told her that she would die if that happened! So she keeps him and his wife apart. Jagdish (Rangayana Raghu) lives nearby. His son, Subhash and Nirmala, Ganesh’s sister are in love, but he insists on a dowry of Rs. 5 lakhs, before he will let them marry, the reason being that he had spent Rs. 25 lakhs on the weddings of his two daughters, expecting to make the money back when his son got married! Subhash tells Rudra and Ganesh that he has some land in his name, and he will sell it to pay the money, but they decide instead to expand the fire-cracker business, to earn the money that way. Ganesh and Gopal go to Madhumaga (Mohan Juneja), a financier, to borrow the money. After giving them the money, he tells them he will go off to Dubai, and return in three months for the money he has lent, plus the interest.
Into the scene comes a beautiful girl, Ankita (Rekha Vedavyas). Her rich father (Avinash) has sent her to the bank with an important file for the manager. She leaves her mobile phone on his desk. Shortly afterwards, Ganesh comes to see the manager, and puts his mobile phone on the desk. As he leaves, the manager gives him Ankita’s mobile phone in error. Ankita comes back for her phone, and is given Ganesh’s phone. Endless comic confusion then follows, as they get calls for each other, including a call from Madhumaga meant for Ganesh, saying that he is back in Mumbai, and is coming for the money he is owed. He comes by taxi, driven by a driver (Tennis Krishna) who is nicknamed Dharmendra. Ankita phones Ganesh to say that they have got each other’s phones. They arrange to meet to exchange phones, but on the way they meet, and have an altercation, without either of them realising that the other is the one they were to meet to get their phones back. Ankita soon finds out that Ganesh has her phone, but Ganesh does not realise that the Ankita he has met is the same girl whose voice he hears on the phone. She teases him – she has gradually fallen in love with him, and he has fallen in love with the girl whose voice he hears on the phone, but is annoyed by the girl he meets – then he finds out it is the same girl!
Then Ganesh’s firework business is burned down. Genesh is also a taxi driver, and makes an extremely bad impression on a man who takes his taxi from the airport. That man is Chandra Shekhar, Ankita’s father, who has come to present an Award for Best Business Man, to Rakesh. Madhumaga arrives looking for the money he is owed, closely followed at every step by Dharmendra who wants Madhumaga to pay his taxi fare. Other events take place, culminating in an engagement ceremony where there are multiple cases of mistaken identity. But there’s still about another forty minutes till the end of the film. Is it possible for everything to be sorted out, for Ankita and Ganesh, and also for Nirmala and Subhash to be united? Watch the film and see.

Songs:
1. Patta patta partake
2. Indhu nannadhe Govinda
3. Alle alle tutu kane sundari
4. Ishttano ishttano nee nango ishttano
5. Jamma jamma jammayisu

Released Year: 2006
Running Time: 157 minutes/Colour/Kannada

Review

This is a film you can’t miss. Reading the synopsis, it is perhaps difficult to realise that this film is a hilarious comedy, right up until the engagement celebration, after which there is an attempt to sort out all the problems caused up until then. You might say that this is another typical Indian film, where poor boy the and the rich girl fall in love. Ganesh is, as always, superb, in the type of character in which he excels. He has a wonderful sense of comedy. We sometimes read the description of the rich girl as a “rich spoilt brat”. But not here, for Rekha Vedavyas plays the role of a very nice, warm, friendly, sympathetic and loveable rich girl, whom we like right from her first appearance in the film: and this is the character she maintains throughout the film, the very opposite of what we see so often in films.
Devaraj is great as the “elder brother” who brought up Ganesh. Umashree is brilliant in her comedy role with Komal Kumar and his new bride.
Mohan Juneja and Tennis Krishna are hilarious in their quest for the money owed to them. Avinash is convincing as the rich girl’s father, and Rangayana Raghu provides comedy as the father who keeps changing his mind about letting his son marry. It’s a great film.

“Patta patta partake” is a lively song, showing everyone living in the area having fun with fireworks. “Indhu nannadhe Govinda” is a song and dance routine with Ganesh, and a group of well choreographed girls in several different sets of beautiful costumes in an indoor setting. “Alle alle tutu kane sundari” is a love song with Ganesh and Ankita and about thirty well choreographed male and female dancers, sometimes on various beach settings and sometimes in the beautiful hills of Karnataka. It has a lovely flute melody in the accompaniment. “Ishttano ishttano nee nango ishttano” is a love song with Ganesh and Ankita, in a variety of outdoor settings. Listen to the sound of the poetry of the first two lines in Kannada – “Ishttano...” then “Kashtano...”. It doesn’t sound so good in the English subtitles! I’ll not tell you what “Jamma jamma jammayisu” is about, as it would reveal the ending, but it’s a lovely song too.

5 stars.

Footnote: I read on Internet that the song “Indhu nannadhe Govinda” was considered in bad taste by some people. I cannot comment on that.

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]