REVIEW FRENCH BIRIYANI (Kannada)

Producers: Puneet Rajkumar, Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar and Gurudutt.A. Talwar

Director: Pannaga Bharana

Star Cast: Rangayana Raghu, Sal Yusuf, Danish Sait, Mahantesh Hirernath and Disha Madan

Genre- Social

Rating- **1/2

CHAOTIC BUT ENGROSSING CAPER!

Jyothi Venkatesh

A French immigrant is misunderstood to be someone else and is chased by Don, a police inspector (who wants promotion) and well everyone who is running behind him. Then there is this auto-rickshaw driver, Asgar (Danish Sait) who is tagged along with the immigrant mentioned above. What happens in these three days is the story that ends ironically in a place called Climax theatre.

Centered on a bunch of the above mentioned characters, all of whom after a missing bag, the film manages to stay afloat till the end because it makes use of improvised comedy, which is at times loud to deliver some fun stretches. This is the second Kannada film to get a digital release after Law. Bearing a very striking resemblance to Delhi Belly, French Biryani is a comedy of never ending errors that never takes itself seriously.

As far as the performances go, Danish Sait as Asgar, the Urdu-speaking auto rickshaw driver, is clearly a riot, right from the first scene in which he is introduced till the climax. Scenes between him and Sal Yusuf, who plays the French immigrant, can easily be described as the film’s best moments. Danish Sait breathes so much life into the film with his flawless portrayal of a local Muslim who speaks Urdu mixed with Kannada, while Sai Yusuf infuses the right dose of déjà vu in his quirky performance as the French national.

The biggest problem of the plot is that it is very disjointed and has been populated with far too many numbers of characters for the viewer to get confused and confused with while he is watching the film.However, on the flip side, I should concede that what makes the film truly cosmopolitan is that each and every character in the film remains culturally distinct and yet coexists with one another, not only speakingin different lingos, tackling different dialects and yet understanding each other so well in perfect sync and there is chaos even in diversity, making you love the film even when you set out to criticize it for its lack of a definite and cohesive plot .

Like there is a well-read urban wife, a Hindi-speaking maid, always grumpy Ram Murthy uncle, a group of laidback boys who always complete their sentences with a ‘dude’ just to sound hip, besides a Tamil-speaking drunkard who misspeaks, every time he opens his mouth.

To put it in a nutshell, I should say that the film, though a mindless comedy given there’s not much happening in the film even though it’s filled with a lot of other characters, this chaotic but edible caper does not bore you even a wee bit and keeps you on the edge of your seat completely engrossed