Anna: A Kannada film on a poor child’s desire to have rice

Kannada filmmaker NS Islahuddin’s latest is a children’s film called Anna, which, given its subject and treatment and that the makers have chosen to release it along with Thalapathy Vijay’s The GOAT, has got a very limited theatrical release with only 4 shows in Bengaluru.

The film, as the title suggests, revolves around rice, and is set in the 80s, in a village in which rice was a luxury very few had access to. Ragi was the staple food, instead. When a young boy, Maadeva (Master Nandan), gets a taste of sweetened rice at a temple, he insists that his father provide the family with rice and refuses to eat the ragi balls his mother makes instead.

Not long after, Maadeva heads to a temple fair with his parents where he goes missing, only to be found in the boot of the car of a wealthy family from a neighbouring village. They take him in and give him access to rice three times a day – all that the little boy dreamed of. His parents, though, continue to look for him and when they eventually find him, he does not want to return to them and their diet of ragi balls.

Islahuddin’s film puts the spotlight on the socio-economic divide, with Maadeva’s family unable to get rice for even one meal, while his adoptive family has stacks and stacks of rice sacks in their home. The boy’s conflict of whether to return to his humble roots or remain with his newfound luxury is at the heart of the film that’s just over two hours in run-time.

The film’s cast includes Sampath Maithreya, Bala Rajawadi, Nagashree CM, Dr Bhuvana Mysore, Ramesh SP, Abraham D’Silva, Muthun, Master Nandan, Master Gautam Raj, Master Sriraj and Master Mahesh Kumar.