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Apart from an unconvincing finale, Agnyathavasi in Kannada directed by Janardhan Chikkanna in his third outing as a feature director, is everything that cinema should be: original, thought-provoking and most importantly, challenging the status quo, both within and outside the cinematic universe.

The setting is an idyllic, disturbingly tranquil village in Karnataka where nothing happens. The police station is nearly defunct. There is no crime. What’s there to steal?! Who’s there to kill?

Director Chikkanna takes some time to get to the point. The slow-burn approach in what purports to be a Shakespearean crime drama involving, among other things, a long-distance relationship, the “evil” advent of the computer era(the film is set in the 1990s), and matricide, is a bit of a damper.

I mean, we want to see the characters grow, not groan, when there is so much in store for them.

Ironically, I found the...

Review‘Pinki Elli?’ has the complexities of any high-stakes thriller. There's organised crime, police investigation, and even a race-against-time kind of pursuit. But the film strives for authenticity and not just the thrills of the genre.Pinki Elli? / ScreengrabPinki Elli? is as uncomplicated a movie as its title is self-explanatory. The film starts with an eight-month-old baby going missing from her home and ends with her being taken back home safely. What happens in between is a story so understated and matter-of-fact that you are left overwhelmed at the end of it all. Prithvi Konanur, the writer-director of the film, treats the story as a mystery, but early on in the film, we learn that that's only the first layer. His true intention is to probe into something deeper and more personal, and expose a dimension of Bengaluru and our existence that we are only aware of but have never truly comprehended.