Rangitaranga: Une vague colorée

It's been a while since I saw a Kannada thriller movie. And, this movie exceeded all my expectations. Kudos to the entire team who gave us such a brilliant movie. This is not exactly a non-linear storyline but, the way Anup Bhandari has taken it is really fantastic apart from couple of goofs. What's a movie without any goofs and continuity misses? Newcomers Nirup Bhandari, Radhika Chetan and Avantika Shetty delivered top notch acting too. And Sai kumar, a round of applause to you Sir! As a thriller, it keeps the audience engaged with every scene and guessing every moment of the movie. Instead of the two quick songs in the second half, the director could've concentrated on going easy on two different story lines. Apart from these and extra spooky effects, this movie did a great job for a thriller genre! Ajaneesh Loknath did an excellent job for the BGM(Didn't find much of UK's BGM similarity though). Stunning DOP by Lance Kaplan and William David. Overall, I'd go with 4.5 out of 5 stars. Must watch for the Kannada movie fans.

Cinematography and tight screenplay is the heart and soul of the film.Anoop's brilliance is seen in every frame and hard work of the entire team is reflected for 2 plus hours on screen! Newbies Nirup, Radhika and Avantika have done a neat job; they look like the people next door, which make the movie close to heart. Sai Kumar's performance too is brilliant. AjaneeshLoknath's compositions are good; Songs AkkaPakka and EeSanje are good. AkkaPakka has topped the charts from the day of the audio release. KeleCheluve- a Yakshgana redemption gives a new feel to the audience. Kareyole kareyole is well stitched with maximum letter 'ka', with strong words. Overall, a good album by AjaneeshLoknath. It's time to support and encourage this talented bunch of film-makers by watching this film. Recently added subs for the people who don't know Kannada. MUST MUST MUST watch the movie.

There are horror movies which offer mainly jumpscares and there are some which will be haunting even after the movie. And then there's this new wave called RangiTaranga – which offers brilliant jump-scares and leaves you haunting even after you come out of the theatre. Not many movies can do that. RangiTaranga doesn't stick to one genre. Director Anup bhandari has played with the genres according to the neatly written and twisted but brilliant screenplay.

The good news is Rangitaranga satisfies all kinds of audience be it frolic seeking janata or experience seeking world cinema followers. While normal audience can soak in the brilliant BGM and the creepy scares with frequent twists, the latter who can appreciate the technicality and the writing of the movie! There are actually more than one story to this movie. The main plot is about the haunted house 'Kamaruttu' and the theories and mysteries surrounding it! Like other movies even this had a similar format but interesting thing about this is the premise. It's surely something new to our audience and there's a lot of detail involved. And the director establishes some really good things and characters in the premise that keeps you thinking. Another story is about Gautham(Nirup bhandari) and Indu(Radhika Chetan) who come to Kamaruttu for a different purpose. And they have their own dark past to worry about. And the final arc is about Sandhya(Avanthika Shetty) looking for a writer called Anashku, who also heads to the same place.

The purposes of these main characters, the mystery surrounding the place, their dark past and how these arcs connect together forms the main crux of the plot. Anup Bhandari has cautiously tried to narrate all these stories with a gripping screenplay and he has pulled it off brilliantly. Right from the first scene, the movie starts to cast its spell on the audience.The first half is mainly about introducing the characters,establishing the premise, providing clues and ending with a great twist while the Second half caters to revelations and connecting all the loose ends! Frequent twists keep the viewers intriguing till the end.

Some scenes are really spine chilling, thanks to the amazing BGM by Ajaneesh Loknath who is definitely the third hero to this movie.Technically the movie is just perfect and they have not compromised anywhere. Cinematographers Lance Kaplan and David Williams should take a bow. The light setting, the camera angles are different and it uplifts the movie to a whole new level. People often confuse rich visuals with richly spent visuals but this movie defines what rich visuals and cinematography is. And the scares wouldn't have been this extremely effective if it wasn't for the editing! It is perfectly done most of the time! The pure Kannada lyrics for all the songs by Anup Bhandari is one more plus point to this movie. They are mostly situational.

Coming to the performances, Nirup Bhandari looks good and for a debut he does a good job but should have done better in a few sequences. The two lead actresses are another great find after Nabha(Vajrakaya) & Priyanka(Ganapa). Avanthika gets to shine more than Radhika and they were great in their roles. Ananth Rao plays a good intimidating cop and other supporting actors do their job well. And there's another important character called KaaLinga Bhat played by Sai Kumar. After Kalpana he comes back with a brilliant role to play. His dialogue delivery, his presentation and his variation in acting is exceptional. There are minor negatives – Some dialogues lacked the feel and punch while a few questions are left unanswered, maybe they weren't relevant to the main plot nevertheless it's easily one of the strongest content dependent movie to come in the recent times after Krishna Leela.

''RangiTaranga'' the Magnum Opus by extremely talented crew proved that Kannada Cinema has that potentiality to go beyond those stereotypical movie formula and win the audience heart, this piece of work never seems to be as the work of the débutante where there is sheer perfectionism and the ensemble artistic elements.

RangiTaranga is one among those movies that elevate the standard of an entire cinema industry and makes its viewers feel proud of their nativity, this movie has very beautiful narrative pattern and brings its audiences into its flow without any strain, mesmerizing cinematography by Lace Kaplin and William David makes every frame as the work of an art, another plus point of this flick is the fantastic BGM by Ajaneesh Loknath that enhances the intensity of the visuals and totally elevate the experience of viewing, technically it's the best among very few movies that made its mark in 'Kannada Cinema Rang', Anup Bhandari as the captain of the team had rendered his work so precisely and had showed all the possible quality of being the tremendous director that one could rely on giving good works, such a fabulous start had also increased the responsibility of giving good movies on Mr. Director, lyrics and typical Kannada songs are truly appreciable.

Nirup Bhandari is the new charm in Sandalwood and also has all those traits of being a good actor, there are slight few things that if he mould himself to the perfection then he moves to be the best, Radhika and Avanthika makes their debut with their good elegant performance, Siddu Moolimani is the person to be appreciated for his awesome on screen presence and comedic appearance, the actual star is Sai Kumar a person endowed with tremendous acting ability had provided full justice to his assigned role, in this phase Mr. Director made the proper selection.

Portrayal of Karavali Karnataka's Bhootha Kola along with syncing music especially 'Dannana' track is the highlight; wonderful locations are other special aspects that add extra beauty to its flow, overall this Kannada thriller stands as the synonyms to the quality and excellence.

The movie definitely lived up to the hype. Brilliant, it was just brilliant! Acting, story, screenplay, music, scenery, and most importantly, the mystery - everything helped in making it a gripping movie that kept us at the edge of our seats throughout.

When the movie reaches the climax, and you get a hang of everything, you can almost hear that collective sigh of relief from everyone - for the mystery, that kept everyone speculate among each other for more than two hours, that was finally revealed, and for the happy realization that the money paid for the movie was pretty damn worth it.

Could have shortened the movie a little bit, and this is possibly the only thing one would find, if they dig deep to find a negative about the film.

What are you waiting for? Go watch RANGITARANGA. Here is a potential 100-150 day movie. Make it reach there. I am watching again for sure. Sakkath movie guru!