‘Kothalavadi’ movie review: A bland village drama with a superb Gopalkrishna Deshpande

Pruthvi Ambaar, who plays the lead in Kothalavadi, was expectedly promoted as the face of the movie. However, those who have watched the latest Kannada release will agree that it’s the gifted Gopalkrishna Deshpande who steals the show in the rural drama. Deshpande is the only actor who receives a proper character arc in the movie, and he does full justice to his role, becoming the only positive aspect of Kothalavadi.

After excelling as a cowardly cop who slowly gathers courage to nab a dangerous gangster in Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana, Deshpande shows his range in Kothalavadi, where he plays a shrewd junk-shop owner who goes on to become a vile politician. In the film, directed by Sri Raju G, Deshpande plays Babanna, a cunning man who encourages the poor in the village named Kothalavadi to indulge in the sand mafia. He convinces the innocent lot that this illegal activity is their only way out of poverty, all the while deceptively plotting his own rise to becoming a local MLA.

Deshpande has fun playing Babanna, who is deliberately conceived as over-the-top and caricaturish. Sadly, the solid character remains as a standalone attraction in Kothalavadi as director Sriraj fails to get the basics right. Sriraj’s writing fails to provide proper arcs to the film’s key characters.

At the beginning of the movie, we think this is a tale of Mohana (Pruthvi), a rebellious orphan in Kothalavadi. Slowly, the focus shifts to Babanna, who uses Mohana as a tool to carry out his nefarious activities. Amid these characters, there is an upright cop (Rajesh Natranga), who is trying to maintain law and order in Kothalavadi by looking to curb the sand mafia. Except for Babanna, none of the other characters are written with enough layers to make them feel like real, vulnerable people.

Kothalavadi takes a long time to get going. The entire first half is dedicated to character development for a film that’s not so complex. A well-planned montage would have conveyed the same information. The second half suffers from surface-level treatment of multiple subplots. The consequences of the sand mafia, the rags-to-riches rise of the antagonist, and the world of an honest cop aren’t balanced well to form a cohesive story.

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Kothalavadi is the maiden production of Pushpa and Arun Kumar, parents of superstar Yash. The movie was in the news for the many interviews given by Yash’s mother, who surprisingly spoke very little about the film. The bland product is proof that no amount of publicity can save a poorly-made movie.

Kothalavadi is currently running in theatres