Cast: Rakshith Shetty, Shanvi Srivastava, Balaji Manohar

Director: Sachin Ravi

Rakshith Shetty starrer Avane Sriramannarayana is a well-executed film, the effort in writing, setup and production quality is all visible in the film.Avane Srimannarayana is about a fantasy village called Amaravathi reeling under a feudal system.

The feudal lord of Amaravathi refuses to announce his successor despite being in death bed, leaving his son Jayarama furious. Soon after, the lord dies but only after taking a promise from Jayarama that he won’t kill his step-brother Tukarama.

The film has pop culture reference because the story set up in a fictional place Amravathi and writer Rakshit Shetty and Seven odds took all the cinematic liberties.

It is the line that causes Hiranyakashipu (Dr. Rajkumar) to fly into a rage in the mythological movie Bhakta Prahlada. And hence, the writers and director Sachin Ravi did not shy away from including the iconic scene from the 1983 movie while introducing Narayana (Rakshit Shetty), the inspector of the god-forsaken village called Amaravati.

The story revolves around loot and how nobody could find it, including the two fighting stepbrothers of Amaravathi.

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A twist in the tale arrives when a corrupt police inspector enters the scene. Srimannarayana (Rakshit Shetty) is witty and charming. Keeping the local milieu authentic with his dialogue delivery and mannerism, Shetty shoulders the film in the best way possible.

Rakshit Shetty is the Jack Sparrow of this film. Shetty takes us to the interiors of Karnataka and introduces the audiences to local customs.

The other actors of the film have given brilliant acting other than Rakshit Shetty. Achyuth Kumar as Achyutanna, Pramod Shetty as Tukarama, Balaji Manohar as Jayarama and Shanvi Srivastava as Lakshmi has contributed equally to the film. Achyuth Kumar’s sense of humor supports Rakshith throughout the movie.

The way Rakshit Shetty and his team of writers have written Narayana, however, has problems. The over-smartness of the hero doesn’t develop into something bigger and significant. The film promises that there is more to the hero than meets the eye. And we wait. We wait for the hero’s true nature to leap out at us like Narasimha avatar from the movie Bhakta Prahlada. We wait for the hero to elevate his intelligence and surprise us with his lesser-known skills. 

But, it never happens. Make no mistake, these are not my unmet expectations from the film. These were the promises made by the film in the process of narration. The film leads us to believe that the protagonist has a bigger motive and greater good behind his actions.

The dystopian period setting resembling Hollywood’s spaghetti westerns enriches the visual appeal of the movie. Composer B. Ajaneesh Loknath has given an interesting background score.

Despite of the flaws, Avane Sriramanarayana is an important Kannada cinema. It is aesthetically brilliant and it is surely tailor-made for cinema theatre and will be only enjoyed on the big screen.