If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/ and search for 'Kannada' following are the highlights:
* Kannada is one of the oldest Dravidian languages with an antiquity of at least 2000 years.
*It is the 27th most spoken language in the world, with native speakers called Kannadigas numbering roughly around 35 million.
*Contemporary Kannada literature is the most successful in India, with India's highest literary honor, the Jnanpith awards, having been conferred seven times upon Kannada writers, which is the highest for any language in India
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It's very evident that we Kannadigas have rich history to be proud of. Normally Kannadigas are peace loving and they embrace anyone who come down, settle and become part of Karnataka. Cinema is one field which pulls crowd in all languages, anywhere in the world. Kannada also has its golden history in this field. The captains (directors) like Puttanna Kanagal, Shankar Nag made ever lasting movies.
Last few years before the release of 'MungAru MaLe' we(kannadigas) were tortured with underworld, rowdy related movies. The movies(most of them) were made by third rate directors for third rate audience. Usually when you want to see a movie, it's natural to see it with your family. Now these idiots made such horrible, violent, vulgar movies that no true Kannadiga can be proud of.
OK..we stopped going to theatres to see movies. Fine now these cowards littered the precious walls of Karnataka with posters where whether hero is there or not ...we used to see a long(sword). These lazy buggers copied and mixed four five movies and presented as their own. How can you portray underworld cowards as heroes? I call them cowards because when they attack and kill the opponent it's done when opponent is not ready or does not have arms with them. Truely courageous people allow enemies to face them with similar weapons. So if a guy chases and kills another guy in the underworld..this killer becomes a hero in some leading news papers and they report history of the guy killed like a 'shaheed'. They will devote precious time and pages to write about it.
Fine..may be it's freedom of expression for media (news papers, cinema). So in that name they can slowly kill the wisdom accumulated since thousands of years.
It's all right now I want to write about the silver lining. The film directors like Shankar Nag , Puttanna never had any airs. First important thing they had was seeking mind. The hunger to learn and give best to the audience. They had love for literature, at the same time knew commercial aspect of cinema (like what will click and what will not).
'Mungaru Male' made with 1.5 crores budget returned 50 crores. It freed us(viewers) from meaningless movies made here. It broke all the myths of foreign location songs, big star cast and unwanted turns, twists. It was made straight from the heart with huge work put in to script and dialogues. It's creating a new wave for good.
I have a special friend who happens to be in cinema field. His name is Shrikanth Deshpande. He is very much the promising part of this new wave. With years of interaction with him, I am amazed by his knowledge of world cinema. He has a great seeking mind.
I have read somewhere about 'sage ruler'..it seems they appear once in many hundred years. Shrikanth has been a sage for some part of his life, roaming as a sage to get answers for some basic questions of life. So in a way he has necessary experience of spirituality, literature to come out with brilliant works.
He has a good sense to judge people, and their expectations. In the hard way he has learnt, how not to let others take advantage of your goodness. Very rarely you find people not affected by mud of animality thats prevalent in dream factories(cinema world). Shrikanth stands out as Lotus --ever pure...ever strong.
At such an young age he has been Associate Director to Nagabharana in Kallaravi Hoovagi movie.
Shrikanth will be promient among film captains in few months from now. Just wait and watch the rise of this cool sage from Koppala to treat us with movies for mass and class.
I wish you all the best sir...
Picture: Shrikanth saying 'Hi' to Sun.
