Mufti (2017)

There are many ways a film creates and holds the hype right from the commencement to its release. Mufti did exactly the same, it not only created the hype but also held the pulses of the people patiently all through the year and those became impulsive the moment the trailer was released and then those were again held back until the film was officially released( ie today). Now the film, in reply, is getting pulsating response as a payback by the audience.
Mufti, right from its film’s title to star-cast and their appearances, created raging curiosity among the audiences but barring few niggles it completely lives up to the expectations.

This underworld-crime thriller starts with a spy-operation by Police Department in collecting the evidences against Bhairathi Ranagal ( The underworld Don Character played by Shivanna ) to bring him to the books but fails miserably resulting in loss of lives. Gana ( the undercover cop character played by Srimurali) is planted as one of the gangsters in Bhairathi Ranagal gang and what unfolds on the screen further is an engaging crime thriller along with predicable drama (with a mixed sequences of politics-comedy-romantic ). Gana slowly understands the pain-points of Bhairathi Ranagal which made him to take up the crime who acts malevolently against the odd ones and remain equally benevolent to the needy ones. Gana who joins the gang to arrest Bhairathi Ranagal ends up becoming an admirer of his benevolence but this underworld-crime thriller, as expected, ends within the confines of the law.

The director has cleverly drawn the parallels between the characters ie Srimurali Vs Vashisht Simha, Srimurali Vs Shivanna, Shivanna Vs Devaraj and then there is an emotional parallel between Shivanna and his sister which is expressed through emotional-act with no-word-uttered between the both until the climax. All the roles played by each character stands aplomb.

Every star in this film has his own mass-appeal and screen presence which is perfectly used by the Director and nowhere the movie goes beyond the line to overly-commercialize the enterprise( except comedy-romantic tracks).

Shivanna has played many Don roles in the past but this will stand aloof in his list. His acting and more importantly the dialogue delivery looks stylish and something stands as a renewed energy on a whole. Srimurali’s intensity, his high octane action sequences and perfect one-liners takes the lion-pie of Mufti and he perfectly plays as a foil for Shivanna. Then comes Vashisht Simha who plays wily-gangster role and perfectly grabs whatever the screen time is allotted wish his screen time was stretched a bit more. Devaraj, the seasoned actor easily glides into politician role. Prakash Belwadi is apt in small role.

The entry scenes of Srimurali and Shivanna, train sequence, action sequence at temple, accident trap by Devaraj for Srimurali with flashback dialogue, pre-climax fight, climax and couple of emotional scenes stands tall along with crisp dialogues. If cinematography by Naveen Kumar is cynosure to eyes then music and background music by Ravi Basrur is the soul of the film.

In spite having just two songs in the film and slightly predictable narration the film never dips or bores but what completely distracts or disowns the same narration are the unwanted comedy tracks of Chikkanna-Sadhu Kokila as well as romantic-track between Shanvi Shrivastav and Srimurali. If the Director wants to make this film look classical then he should sit tonight and completely edit these two tracks and send apology letters to the concerned actors involved in these two tracks for editing out their scenes.

Narthan(who earlier assisted to Prashant Neel for his Ugramm), the Director has choosen the underworld crime thriller to make his perfect launch in a big way. His toil is completely shown on the screen. The story, the roles written for the character, shooting the sequences aesthetically , capacity of handling such big star-cast, the costumes, the sets etc glitters on the screen as drama unfolds with a pulsating background music and visual delighting cinematography.