Kannada cinema seems to be heading the Kerala way. Malayalam cinema was so far regarded as the hub of creativity. No longer so. Films from Karnataka have lately been fetching themselves bonus points for originality and excellence.
Debutant director J. P. Thuminad’s Su From So gets points for originality. I am not too sure about the excellence. Though leaden with quirky characters who are either seen drinking or gossiping, or both, the plot is paper-thin and unhumorous beyond a point.
When the proceedings stretch themselves to more than two hours of faffing, one feels progressively less inclined to laughing.
Set in a small coastal village (apparently in the South, people living by sea are often at sea), the hectic drama of drollery and raillery begins when a young man, Ashoka (played by the writer-director J P Thuminad) is caught peeping at a woman bathing (heroes are no longer allergic to perversions). To save his reputation, Ashoka pretends to be possessed by the ghost of a woman named Sulochana.
That’s it! That one SOS move triggers off a chain of uncontrollable bacchanalia, some amusing, the other so overdone it feels like an overcooked meal. With lots of free booze, of course. The gurgle and guzzle of a village of idle chatterers begin to get annoying after a point.
The satire on the supernatural starts on a promising note, but soon gets repetitive and self-contradictory. What starts off as a professed critique on blind faith eventually settles down to celebrating spirits rather than shooing them off.
The entire spiral of the plot is in conflict with the basic contemplated premise of belittling the concept of ghosts and other supernatural entities. We can condone the contradictions by keeping in mind that the comic genre allows limitless liberties.
However, the film’s underlying tone secretes serious concerns like domestic abuse and the way single women especially widows, are looked on as easy prey by men in rural India.
Somewhere in the prevalent chaos Su From So (the title refers to the spirit Sulochana who is from a place called Someshwara) forfeits its claims to being a relevant comment on blind faith by succumbing to pressures of mass entertainment, quite like the characters who seem hopelessly trapped in a time warp of superstitions and ghosts, all fuelled by the endless drinking.
A major obstacle in Su From So obtaining the creative freedom it seeks are the characters who keep pouring into the plot, unchecked. Some, like Ravi Anna (Shaneel Gautham), the village’s sensible do-gooder, hold their own in spite of the slippery ground. Other characters are not that lucky.
