Movie review ‘Vamshodharaka’: The drought continues

Director: Aditya Chikkanna
Cast: Vijay Raghavendra, Meghana Raj, Lakshmi, Naveen Krishna, Rangayana Raghu, Sadhu Kokila, Satyajith, Srinivasa Murthy
Rating: 1.5 stars


With films lining up in bunches to hit the screens in a hurry, for reasons best known to the producers, ‘Vamshodharaka’ looked promising for its rustic ‘plot’ – a much needed break from the overdose of horror, suspense and action thrillers. The promise is broken, yet again, and the drought continues for the talented actor Vijay Raghavendra who plays the protagonist’s role of a young educated lad who returns to his village to take up agriculture.

The plot sounds stale from the beginning with too much being stacked for a tasteless two-and-a-half hour plus experience. It is a mash up of several classic films based on the rural side of the life, right from ‘Bangarada Manushya’, a milestone in Indian film industry in which Natasaravabhouma late Rajkumar portrays the evergreen character as Rajeevappa, and in ‘Kasturi Nivasa’ the beloved Rajkumar at his best portraying the role of a selfless person, and many more such classics. ‘Vamshodharaka’ falters mainly because of the disjointed script, which is nothing but patch up work of several ‘episodes’ to make it look like one big film.

The only relief is that of veteran actors who are at their usual best with Lakshmi of Julie returning with a top-notch performance.

Returning to the countryside, the tale revolves around the protagonist who shoulders every problem in the village through his charity acts. On one side the charity and preaching continues, and on the other side several plots and songs keeps running. Imagine a running race wherein the runners are running in deferent directions! The humour in the plot is extremely distasteful. The bad guy meets his fate, and the good guy wins the heart of everyone in the end including the decade old final scene wherein the girl’s father begs for forgiveness while happily agreeing to the marriage of his daughter with the hero. And they all smile before the screen freezes - ‘the end.’