Streaming now: Sharan’s Avatara Purusha part 1

When director Suni announced his maiden collaboration with actor Sharan, industry folk and fans were intrigued. Suni, after all, is known for his wicked sense of humour, while Sharan thrives on comedy. The combination of two very funny men would be interesting, they reckoned. Suni, though, decided not to do a full-on laugh fest. While comedy would be the cornerstone of his film, he decided to bring in another element into the narrative, one that has to be given due seriousness and can’t be messed around with much – black magic.

The film, Avatara Purusha, revolves around the Jois family – Rama and Susheela – who lose their young son at a temple festival, which he attends with his aunt. Rama’s father Brahma Jois was a learned wizard, who was entrusted with safeguarding the Trishanku mani, a mythological gem stone that would give a person access to Trishanku heaven and the powers that come therewith. The stone is hidden away in the Jois’ ancestral home, with several dark forces at play, trying to lay their hands on it. The magic element is the main thread of the story, even as Rama’s niece Siri tries to bring happiness into their family, by ‘returning’ their long-lost son Karna to them.

Siri contracts a junior cine artiste, Anila, to pretend to be Karna, but it turns out that there’s more than meets the eye about him and he, like several others, has an ulterior motive behind coming to the Jois household. This was pretty much what Avatara Purusha part 1 presented. Released in theatres on May 6, the film received good critical response, but that did not translate into box-office results, which industry experts say was because audiences were still in the KGF: Chapter 2 hangover at the time.

Sharan’s film is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, having dropped on the platform today. Meanwhile, during an Instagram live chat shortly after the film’s theatrical release, Suni had said that he was looking at bringing Avatara Purusha Part 2, which has the tagline Trishanku, to theatres by Dasara this year. While the team has some portions pending to be shot, the more time consuming bit, he said was the visual effects required for the black magic portions of the story.

Produced by Pushkara Mallikarjunaiah with music by Arjun Janya, Avatara Purusha also stars Ashika Ranganath, Saikumar, Bhavya, Sudharani, Vijay Chendoor, B Suresha, Srinagara Kitty, Balaji Manohar and Ashutosh Rana, among others.