Durgi - 2004 DVD $7.99

Durgee Kannada

Starring: Malashree, B. Jayashree, Ashish Vidyarthi, Avinash, Sadhu Kokila, Bullet Prakash, Tennis Krishna
Director: Ravishankar
Producer: Ramu
Music Dir: Hamsalekha
Lyricist: Hamsalekha
Singers: Manjula Gururaj, Manu, S Janaki, B. Jayashri, Madhu Balakrishna, Anup, Badriprasad, Chetan,
Distributor: Sri Ganesh
Genre: Drama, Action

Synopsis

The film starts when the new Police Commissioner (Ashish Vidyarthi) introduces himself to officers in the Bangalore Police. He starts by recounting how they are all making illegal money and taking bribes. The criminal underworld in Bangalore is run by two Dons – Jaidev, known as JD, and Marigudi. Apparently they started out as friends, but now there exists a bitter rivalry between them. The Commissioner has been appointed by the CM to deal with them.
A bus is coming into Bangalore Bus Station, when some young thugs, who are footballers, assault a girl on the bus and pull her sari off. The bus stops. We see two of the thugs flying through the front windows of the bus. Durgi (Malashree) helps the girl to put on her sari, then gets off the bus, and beats up all the thugs. The Police arrive, and arrest Durgi, and take her and all the thugs who make a complaint against her to the police station. The Commissioner arrives, and the girl, who was assaulted, and her family tell him what really happened, whereupon he has Durgi released, and the thugs arrested.
When the girl and her family discover that Durgi, her grandmother, and Shankara (Avinash), her teacher, have just arrived with nowhere to stay, they insist, in gratitude for what Durgi has done for their daughter, that she comes with them to stay where they live, in Mangya Mangamma Colony, saying there is plenty of room for them. Durgi has been introduced to everyone as being dumb. We then see the colony, with everyone waiting with water-pots, and no water in the tap. A young boy site beside the tap. He listen for the water coming. When it does, everyone rejoices, and fills their water-pots, all in different colours, and we see the men doing the laundry – and thus we have the first song “Koda Taa Bindgi Taa”.
They go to see Mandi Bettappa, a corrupt MLA who is opening an amusement park. He is distressed to see them, and feels ill. It seems he suffers from heart trouble, and has a doctor with him, who checks his blood pressure. His grandchildren, who are with him, insist on his taking them on the big-wheel. During the ride, he dies of a heart attack, because of the shock of seeing Durgi.
There is comedy, when a Doctor arrives at the Colony, saying he is giving everyone injections against an epidemic. One of the men who lives there (Tennis Krishna) runs off and climbs up a tree. However, a voluptuous looking nurse, who claims to be a Doctor, appears out of the ambulance, and he comes down – then follows a comedy song routine, “Cottonpette Kanakamma”. There is more comedy, when three plump girls all want to marry a man (Sadhu Kokila), because he has a birthmark on his thigh, and because their astrologers had predicted that they would become the owners of a five-star hotel if they married a man with a birthmark on his thigh. However, he manages to escape, and comes to give money to Durgi and her entourage: he has come with the money from their village.
Her real name is Durga Parmeshwari, and she lives in a village, Durgapur, with her father, grandmother and ten-year old sister, Ningi. There is a Secondary School Prize-Giving, in which the two girls win all the prizes, Durgi for athletics. Then we have the song “Idu Hennu Huli”, featuring Dugi and all the villagers, in which Durgi sings, “I am a Kannada female. If angry I am like a machine gun”.
Two “big shots” come from Bangalore to arrange for the building of a sugar factory. They are Rahul, JD’s son, and Naga, Marigudi’s brother. They rape Ningi, then when she is in hospital recovering, JD and Marigudi come and murder both Ningi and her father, who is staying with her in the hospital. Then they pay the Doctor to give a false post-mortem report, with the collusion of Mandi Bettappa, the MLA. What the film is about is how Durgi decides to take revenge for the death of her sister and her father, by killing all those responsible. Will she succeed, despite the eagle eye of the Police Commissioner, who after one of the killings sings a couple of lines of the song “Jeena yaha, myrna yaha” from the Raj Kapoor film, “Mera Naam Joker”?

Songs:
1. Koda Taa Bindgi Taa
2. Cottonpette Kanakamma
3. Idu Hennu Huli
4. Shri Krishna
5. Biltan Nodu Iga

Released Year: 2004
Running Time: 161 minutes/Colour/Kannada

Review

This film feature Malashree, in her typical role of “super-heroine”, in a vendetta against those responsible for the rape and death of her ten-year-old sister, and the death of her father. In this role, she is in her usual form. Avinash is excellent as her Teacher, who is helping her in this. Ashish Vidyarthi, who so often plays corrupt characters, has a change of role here – by playing the good Police Commissioner, who is out to eliminate the corruption in Bangalore. Sadhu Kokila is one of the villagers, who plays a serious role – he comes to Bangalore to try to assist Durgi in her quest for revenge, or to be more accurate, for justice. Although he gets involved in comedy when three girls all want to marry him, he plays a serious role – for he has brought money for Durgi and Teacher to help them: this he gives them secretly at night, before getting on a bus to return to the village: he is as good in the serious role as he is in the usual comedy role he plays. Grandma is good – as is the entire cast. It is good to see the enthusiasm of both the villagers of Durgapur, and those living in Mangya Mangamma Colony, particularly in the song and dance routines, which are all set as a continuation of the story, in the locations in which the action is taking place. The music and lyrics by Hamsalekha are superb, as usual, fitting in with the mood of the story.

4 stars

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