Gurudev Hoysala

Dhananjay spearheads this movie in the titular character, a no nonsense cop who will go to any extent to get justice. He is assigned the missing case of another officer and transferred to Athani. There he comes across two lovers who have eloped and are illegally detained in his police station. He gets the two married only to rile up the girl's family who are extremely castiest and obviously criminals. As the issue gets sensitive, it is upto Gurudev to find the couple and the process gives him a lead on the missing officer.

The film does highlight the Honour killing and the prevailing casteism. Despite treading with familiar tropes, the screenplay remains fairly engaging throughout. With solid villains especially Naveen Shankar as Bali, the director's job is made much easier in elevating Dhananjay's Gurudev Hoysala. There are several heroic scenes and Dhananjay had a blast enacting them. As much predictable the story is, the entertaining factor remained intact.

I for one, wished for a proper / longer showdown between Gurudev and Bali. Their final fight felt too short. Gurudev Hoysala is still a solid watch as far as commercial potboilers go.

The movie is a little better than the other chest thumping ones in the sense the fights are a little more realistic. The social message of 'caste' seems like a feel-good, but there is nowhere else in this earth which does not have a caste system. Every country, every religion, every non-religion have divisions. Blaming caste for our problems in society is moronic and a cop-out.

Other than caste, there is another social message of honor killings. But it is the message of anti corruption that comes out more powerful in this movie. It is unnerving how anyone will not cooperate with the local mafia and do their bidding, unless you have super human strength.

Acting wise, Dhananjaya is ok, Achyuth Kumar is good, and he is capable of much better. The starcast and their portrayals are good.

A refreshing good base plot line and action drama with a strong social message make this product worth watching ... Daali's 25th movie is a sure shot and fits into the cop's role perfectly and hope to see him reach greater heights While bali and Dada villainous act is a show sealer without a doubt... Director Vijay has done a commendable job by exploring the talents of all artists to the fullest keeping screenplay engaging without adding commercial flavours from beginning to end... Cinematography and music carry the soul of the movie without eating our eardrums... Overall a worthy package of the good-intentioned commercial flick.

I watched the movie Dasara and Gurudev Hoysala on the same day, the stories somewhere touched on casteism. But watching Dasara i felt it was a drag but Gurudev Hoysala turned out to be crisp and a very neat screenplay with no lag or overaction anywhere. Glad i watched GuruDev Hosyala and what great action..both hero and villain were very promising and equal screen space...a great subject indeed and not a single boring moment....though this subject has been done so many times, but the twist is great and ending awesome...keep smiling Dolly Dhananjay...you are going great guns...proud of you and your body language...even the dialect of north karnataka was very well done and music and bgm and story and narration everything was top notch....!!!

Movie is packed with all necessary commercial elements. The main plot revolves around honour killing and caste system which is very rare to see in modern Kannada cinema. Movies like Bhootayyana maga Ayyu, Hemavathi,Janumada Jodi were few daring attempts and the that spark is now carried over to Hoysala movie.

We might get few shades of Koshiyum Ayyapunam, Kaithi, Dark Knight.. However those have been blended to match the story.

Message they want to convey is very strong and sensitive and I totally appreciate Director's choice to make this a commercial flick. The teams intention to subtle the impact with commercial elements is clever. The character Bhoomi cannot be the Shosanna Dreyfus as caste system in Karnataka is still deep rooted and its hard to burn it down in a movie theatre. Hence even to whisper against this deep rooted caste system, one must be courageous.

Additionally movie also speaks about role of media, duties of cops and helplessness of police due to corrupt system around them. Hoysala is a symbol of ideal police officer that our society needs. These ideals are necessary for modern youths. Thanks to the Hoysala team for providing necessary medicines sandwiched with all masala elements!