Every now and then a lower budget film comes along with a relatively unknown actor and somehow turns out to be a massive hit. Enter 'Deadly Soma', a well written Kannada film based on the real life of one of Bangalore's most notorious underworld personalities, Don Somashekhara aka 'Soma'. What this film lacks in production quality, it makes up for in sheer bravado. Heavily criticised on its release for being too violent, the film turned out to be the surprise hit that year, thanks mostly to a strong performance from Aditya. Indeed Aditya, who plays the role of Soma, makes the film and considering he was a newcomer (with only one other film under his belt at the time), he does an extremely competent job. Many of the item numbers and dance routines are forgettable but the darker more atmospheric tracks (like "O Kshatriya") are much better and complement the darker mood of the narrative very well. The plot races along at a fast pace for most of the film, culminating in its now well-known climax. By the time the higher budget "Deadly-2" sequel was made (again starring Aditya with Suhasini roped in as his mother), Deadly Soma had gone on to become no less than a cult film in Karnataka. The follow-up lacks the raw unpolished element which makes this film so much fun. If you can look beyond the lower production values, this is one of the best underworld films to come out of the South in the 00s.
