Critical Keertanegalu review: This cautionary tale about cricket gambling is ambitious, but also dull and unimaginative

2.5/5

Story:

Advocate Kariyappa, known for his outrageous petitions against large organizations, files a case at the local civil court to get a very popular T20 cricket league in India banned. His reasons - the league has urged millions to take up betting or gambling which has, in turn, resulted in countless suicides. When the court judge refuses to pay heed to his case, Kariyappa presents four distinct real-life incidents that were grossly affected by the cricket league.

Review:

At the outset, filmmaker Kumaar's second outing 'Critical Keertanegalu' is a novel socio-comedy. The film deals with the prevalent subject of cricket betting and speaks at length about how it has steadily grown to become a social menace by virtue of the format's mega-success. It is, by all means, a cautionary title at heart but Kumaar attempts at fusing comedy, drama, and poignance with the help of the multiple-narrative technique - the results, despite all the sincerity, are underwhelming.

The story kicks off from where Kumaar's first film 'Chemistry of Kariyappa' ended with lawyer Kariyappa (played by Tabla Nani) still getting up to his antics with full gusto. Kariyappa is known to often take up mighty tasks in hand as a righteous lawyer and doesn't spare even the large and powerful organizations with his complaints and petitions. His gaze and focus, at present, are set on the super popular T20 cricket league in India and the man approached the civil court to have it banned altogether. Kariyappa cites that the cricket league has cast a negative shadow on the Indian population, and urged millions to bet their hard-earned money on matches and later resort to suicides due to excessive debts (the film throws a few valid statistics to support the argument). And when the court judge, played by a delightful Suchendra Prasad, refuses to take the matter any forward, Kariyappa makes his case by presenting four real-life stories that were wrecked by the betting addiction.

Much of the film then becomes about these four distinct narratives. Kumaar, also the writer, makes things diverse possible by setting the stories in different regions of Karnataka (Kundapura, Belagavi, Mandya, and Bengaluru) and giving them each a unique name. Each narrative is interestingly presented as a psalm, a keerthana, to suggest that we are witnessing a carefully curated list of stories like in a short story collection - and it is perhaps with this particular aspect that Kumaar has been most successful. He sets each story in a different demographic and age group to prove that the issue of betting is applicable across the social spectrum.

And right on cue, the film's insatiable comic energy begins to fizzle out to give way to a rather melodramatic tone. The first half, a breezy affair, is consumed mostly by the exposition of all the different characters and narratives, the status quo, and how IPL betting becomes the common respite for them all. But the issue arises when the stories remain surface level and after a point, one has a prominent sniff of what's to come. The screenplay, trying to navigate within the multiple stories, chooses to not jump back and forth between reality (the courtroom) and its own meta world and soon becomes an unrelenting sequence of events that is loud and ineffective. It would come as a big surprise that both Tabla Nani and Suchendra Prasad barely find any screen time but when they do, the screen is lit up with their great repartee. In one particular sequence before the interval, Nani showcases his dialogue-delivery skills to a superb effect, and Suchendra Prasad, completely attuned to his acting partner, is crackling with his expressions.

The first half, a breezy affair, is consumed mostly by the exposition of all the different characters and narratives, the status quo, and how IPL betting becomes the common respite for them all. But the issue arises when the stories remain surface level and after a point, one has a prominent sniff of what's to come. The film ends up being only a cautionary tale against greed and intemperance because Kumaar never tries to explore or justify the human rush to gamble through his characters, or the sustained heaviness that comes along with the addiction.

Verdict:

With a run time of over 2 hours, Critical Keetanegalu is an easy watch for a good part until the unnecessary melodrama kicks in. The film manages to squeeze in several crucial aspects and even has a few genuinely emotional moments that are to stay with us. But ultimately, the film would have benefitted from smarter and more imaginative writing, considering the number of characters and important aspects it dabbles in. Watch the film for some cricket-related puns and innuendo.