Kapata Nataka Sutradhari movie review: Dhiraj MV's gutsy political satire has too soft a landing

Kapata Nataka Sutradhari movie story: Mathematics teacher Manoj’s (Murali Shankar), bride hunt in distant Raybag, accompanied by a colleague, becomes a full-blown circus when the latter joins villagers in the ceremonies at a 1,000-year-old historical temple that is opened for only 2 days in a year. One legend associated with the temple is that devotees who crawl under an elephant statue will get their wishes granted. Manoj’s colleague joins the queue, although unsure if he can squeeze through given his pudgy frame. Egged on by bystanders, he takes the plunge, only to end up wedged tightly and unable to move ahead or retreat 

While the villagers initially see this as an opportunity to repair the elephant’s leg and extricate this poor man, that plan goes up in smoke when he reveals his name – Mohammed Ismail (Dhiraj MV).

Kapata Nataka Sutradhari movie review: There’s a lot that happens in debutant director Dhiraj MV’s Kapata Nataka Sutradhari, despite its rather short run-time. Dhiraj doesn’t waste much time in setting up the main premise of his tale – the events leading up to the moment he gets stuck under the statue are brief, but impactful. And then he whips out his trumpcard – a goldmine that everyone, from the media to local politicians and police officials seeks to exploit for their personal gains.

A communal conflict – Muslim man stuck in a Hindu temple. For the media, the possibility of a man dying is a TRP spinner all the way, for a local thug with political ambitions, maintaining the sanctity of the temple will likely score him brownie points with the villagers, while the cops hope to benefit from ensuring Ismail doesn’t die under their watch. Everyone’s got skin in the game and no one’s really bothered about the man at the centre of it all.

Also read: Kapata Nataka Sutradhari is not a Hindu-Muslim conflict story 

It's all well until then, with sharp dialogues and wit. It’s in the resolution of this situation that Dhiraj cops out; so instead of a bang, you get a whimper. Despite the divisive religion-led political environment in the country, the actor-filmmaker still has faith in humanity. Noble as that sounds, I think that boat sailed a long time ago.

If the question that lingers is about the credibility of a newbie team in addressing a subject that should, ideally, get audiences to put on their thinking caps, rest assured it is only that segment that has the conviction to go through with potentially problematic themes. The rest are busy playing to the gallery.

Kapata Nataka Sutradhari movie verdict: A rather tame ending undoes most of what Dhiraj had been building up to until then, but kudos to the filmmaker for a decent attempt. This film needed to have a solid landing, but skids into wishy-washy terrain.