Vikrant Rona and the case of creating 'Mass' content

 

1980s, a remote village in the Dakshina Kannada- Mangaluru region. Legends of bhoota, brahmarakshas galore. Age old rituals, bhootaradhane, deiva, kola. Family with a secret past. Spate of killings – including the police inspector investigating the murders. Throw in a bit of smuggling. Enter 2 strangers with their own motives– one , the long lost son of the aforementioned family and another a police officer who is the replacement of the one that got knocked off. 

This sounds like a blurb of the next Pendergast Novel or the premise of a gritty, atmospheric TV series – a la True Detective. In fact  with new comers or mid-range actors, this could have been a highly acclaimed albeit a modestly successful theatrical movie /TV series. But Anup Bhandari decides to go big. He ropes in one of the biggest star in the industry, decides to dub it in to multiple languages and on top of it, goes 3D with it. The result (at least for me) is an engaging theatrical experience.

The task of marrying content and mass image of a star is a difficult one. Anup does manage it well , even though not everything works. Credit to Sudeep for taking up the role, which relative to his recent outings, is subdued.

The flaws in the script is masked by a great technical team. The set design, background score and for me the biggest achievement is the 3D rendering. This has to be the best Indian 3D movie ever. (In fact, its better than what we see in the Marvel, DC productions). 3D has been used effectively to create the depth in the scenes and also obfuscate the fact that much of the action was shot in sets. And the gimmicky – throw stuff at the screen – parts of 3D too does startle you in couple of places. Achieving this level of immersive experience in post 3D conversion and probably at a fraction of what Hollywood spends is no small feat.

As mentioned, not everything in the script sticks. Certain scenes though look great and are there only for the loyal fan base of the star. Plot points, if you think about later (The famous Hitchcockian fridge logic), doesn’t add up.

In spite of its flaws, I would say Vikrant Rona is a creative success for its attempt in delivering reasonable good content in a super star driven vehicle, for its technical brilliance (especially the 3D conversion). For someone who is from the region where the story transpires, the Kamrottuverse has a lot of potential for  many future tales.