In and around Melige, nearly everyone loves Subbanna’s hotel not love it, but love it. It becomes the second home of the entire people of that small town in Karnataka’s Thirthahalli Taluk, and it has almost become a must-visit joint from police officers to travelers to newspaper enthusiasts ‘shakhahaari’ khanavali for a quick tea or kashaya or a ready made breakfast. A place of refuge if you may, because no matter what happens in life at least Subbanna’s place will stay.
He himself is a little strange but also adorable. He still owns one of those old radios that are called Aakashanvaani which produces sweet noises. Dancing and acting are his other interests besides cooking for customers who come into the restaurant daily, he spends all evenings doing them without any fail even though being at an age above thirty five years would make this seem unusual on most occasions. However, until he steals her look every day his day remains incomplete according to him because such terms don’t exist between people like Subbana who might be described as friendly by everybody around since apart from world everything else can change but not him For once imagine having such man placed right at the heart of gripping mystery which leads us into immersive & powerful thriller named Shakhahaari.
Every so often, it turns out that the suspect in a murder case has escaped police custody and is now fleeing for his life from the cops. Sub-inspector shot him in the leg and he can’t go too far on foot anyway. Could the hotel come in handy here? If that is to be, how would a person like Subbanna a man who hasn’t done anything bad before make sense of things? More importantly, how does he slip past some of his customers’ who are getting curious about his now weird behavior radar?
This is where Sandeep Sunkad’s new film draws its essence from. It is a movie that genuinely tries to establish the world first even as it readies itself to slowly bring us into the drama. The writer director skillfully creates an atmosphere not only suitable for a whodunit but also one where life unfolds at an unforgivably slow pace. We also get to know that apart from Subbanna, there is much at stake for this runaway man’s pursuer the town’s sub-inspector Mallikarjun (played by Gopal Deshpande) whose pending transfer back home will be delayed if he doesn’t catch him again, worse still he might lose his job or end up being incarcerated himself. We learn that there’s a lawyer in Melige nursing some grudge against Mallikarjun over some old case and has now suddenly found herself in position of making things harder for him while we also discover that this murder convict holds different version of truth and at this point Subbanna is his only hope.
Leisurely is perhaps the keyword when it comes to Shakhahaari because the film remains steadfastly very slow-moving, sometimes even too calm for its own good. On paper one would expect tension and anxiety given what’s at stake here but as story inches forward one realizes that Sandeep Sunkad wants his movie to stay calm for as long as possible. He would rather focus on the ordinary, especially Mallikarjun’s domestic troubles an approach that is both noble and intriguing but one that eventually starts letting go of the narrative. A story which has so much potential right from the beginning. We can see how desperately Mallikarjun just wants to solve this case because there is a lot riding on it but that same urgency doesn’t come across on screen somehow.
Yet another concern is how Subbanna, the film’s controlling power, keeps being mild-mannered for too long. What I mean by this is that it almost ignores to up the ante for this person and only when it chooses to do so we feel that it comes a little late in the story. A fantastic kind of accident occurs between the two men Subbanna and Mallikarjun and the audience knows something’s about to break when they meet eventually.
But this brilliant chance seems wasted by the writing because of its lack of concentration or purpose. As a result, a climax sequence which should have wrapped things up with great intensity loses steam and fails to reward our time and effort appropriately. Even though there were many shock moments in this scene, Sandeep Sunkad’s attempt at constantly misleading us here doesn’t quite work considering how much shock value there already is. But Shakhahaari still remains worthy of watching. Like mentioned earlier on, it’s an engaging film with some excellent technical aspects that help elevate its story Mayur Ambekallu’s punchy score being one such aspect as well as Vishwajith Rao’s clever visuals. Another thing that works in favor of this movie is having strong lead actors who can deliver solid performances, both Rangayana Raghu and Gopalkrishna Deshpande bring their A game here. While Rangayana sheds off his usual comic image very subtly before seamlessly slipping into his role, Gopal Deshpande brings out different angles in characters he has played over again countless times. There isn’t much else to say about other members making up rest cast like Vinay UJ or Prathima Nayak except they fit perfectly within their roles. If only film had relied on much smarter script economy we would be dealing with far superior thriller right now.
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