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EDITOR'S PICK
`18th
Cross` - not worth the wait (Kannada Movie Review)
Rating: **
This was a film started nearly six years ago, but could not see the light of the
day for so long mainly because of the death of its producer Chikkanna in
between. Later his wife took over the production responsibility of the film.
Had the film released in time, it would have marked the acting debut of Radhika
Pandit, who is currently the reigning actress in the Kannada film industry.
The fact that the present musical sensation Arjun Janya had composed the music
for the film also fuelled some interest in the film. Naturally for any person
interested in seeing this film, there may be a sense of inertia mainly because
of a nagging feeling that the film may be outdated.
The story goes like this - Jeeva is being wrongly implicated in a murder by the
police. But as it is known later, his opponent Benne Krishna, who has
masterminded this murder, frames Jeeva. An enraged Jeeva wants to come out of
this web and decides to be the king of underworld.
Meanwhile, he is also in love with Punya, a middle class girl who is in awe of
him. When the battle is on, Jeeva wants to marry Punya and run away from the
locality. He tells her to come to the 18th Cross when police ambush and kill him
in an encounter.
Surprisingly despite being outdated, 18th Cross is not all that bad
and there are quite a number of interesting sequences. But it can`t be called a
good film either.
The reason? Director Shankar has just tried to cash on the success of many
successful underworld films in Kannada. There has been a quantum leap in the
technical values of films in general in the Kannada film industry and rich
production values have become a common feature when action sequences are shot.
Also, there has been a big shift in the way even ordinary stories are narrated
on screen these days.
Therefore it would be difficult to digest the narrative mode of 18th
Cross. There are a few entertaining elements in the film, which ends on a
tragic note.
Radhika looks cute on screen while Shishya Deepak has done justice to his job of
executing the ordinarily shot action sequences.
The first half is slightly better, but the second half is full of gory violence
and tragedy-filled sequences. The film fails to engage the audience in the
second half.
Vinaya Prasad and Ramakrishna have performed their roles with ease.
Janya has composed two lovely tunes for the film. Thirugi thirugi
and Modhala minchu are melodious numbers.
Overall, an average fare.