Devadas, who has directed the Kannada film Bandhe Barthaale, is one director who has exposed his ignorance of any understanding of the visual medium. That should come as a surprise as Devadas has worked for many years in the Kannada film industry as a music arranger and later as a music director.
It would have been better if Devadas had continued with what he is good at -- composing music. But he has tried to take too many responsibilities in Bandhe Barthaale like writing the story, lyrics, dialogues and even composing music besides direction. In the end, we find that he has composed some mediocre songs which are actually lifted shamelessly from Hindi and Telugu.
The screenplay is so predictable that nothing comes as a surprise. The characterisation is bizarre that you see the villain turning comical in the climax. The so- called message in the last scene is quite contradictory to what the director hints throughout the film.
Let us look at the shallow story line. Ganesh lives in the slums with his mother and spends his time mostly with his good for nothing friends. A rich girl, Rekha, falls in love with Ganesh. As expected, Rekha's rich father Lakshmipathy opposes the affair, and his cunning friend Ramana wants his crony to get married to Rekha. Ganesh and Rekha run away to get married, but they are arrested. The court orders that Rekha should stay with her father for six months till she attains the age of eighteen. Finally Ganesh fights with the villains to save Lakshmipathy and win Rekha.
We have seen hundreds of such stories on celluloid. To make matters worse, even the performance of the artists is so dispirited that you tend to laugh even when they are serious.
The only time newcomer Surya shows some emotions is in the graphically supported fight sequences This is the first outing for the leading actress Supreetha who was already seen in Ambari. She appears dull in most of the sequences. Santhosh is much better in his performance. Veteran actors Shobha Raj, Padmavasanthi and Killer Venkatesh have put in usual performances.
In a nutshell, Bandhe Barthaale is too predictable and boring.
Rediff Rating: 
