Movie: Kabandha (Kannada)

Director: Sathyanath

Cast: Prasad Vasishta, Kishore, Avinash, Prashanth Siddi, Priyanka Malali, Chayashree Umesh, and Yogaraj Bhat.

Runtime: 124 minutes

Certificate: UA

Rating: Four out of five

Director Sathyanath has selected a story that narrates how people, especially children in rural areas are being affected with indiscriminate use of pesticides by innocent farmers who have no proper awareness on the ill-effects of such chemicals.

The advantage of the movie is conveying the much-needed message to society, especially to farmers, even though it belongs to the horror genre. The 10-second collage of pictures in the climax adds value to the movie.

The director has succeeded in making the movie with a minimum number of actors and a few locations.

The movie begins with a farmer spraying pesticide on his crops at Ramohalli. Nachiketa, a boy, faints while playing in the agricultural field and is rushed to a medical clinic. The next scene is two girls – Swathi and Shruthi – playing near their house. Their mother Rukku (Chayashree Umesh) prepares jackfruit porridge and gives it to them. They go to the agricultural field where their father Hanuma (Kishore) is spraying pesticide on the crops belonging to a landlord. Ruku is seen waiting for her husband Hanuma to come home. Finally, Hanuma comes home alone. You have to watch the movie if you want to know what happened to Hanuma and others.

Prasad Vasishta, who played Nachiketha, has acted well in scenes where he undergoes seizure disorder. Kishore, as a hapless tenant farmer and the father of two innocent girls, has acted well. The scene where he buries his two daughters died of pesticide and commits suicide has the potential to melt the audiences’ hearts.

The disadvantages of the movie are lack of comedy and incongruous scenes at a farm house where a dead body disappears and the heroine gets a phone call asking her to come to the farm house. It is not clear why the director has selected a well-known director Yogaraj Bhat to play Dr Vaman Rao who appears in three scenes. Avinash too appears in a few scenes.

You can watch it with your family since it has a message.