Rajaratha

Abhi and Megha on board a bus named Rajaratha. The two college mates are traveling to Chennai with a motley crew. Meanwhile, there is Vishwa, who is a young leader in an extremist outfit that works with the ruling party and has a big task at hand. Both the stories have the central characters on important missions of their lives. How are they interlinked?

After the thriller RangiTaranga, the Bhandari brothers — Anup and Nirup — are back with Rajaratha. This time, they have chosen to narrate a breezy story that's mixed with another tale that has been smartly guarded until now. What is laudable is that the film makes no bones about being a film being made just for entertainment sake and they are happy even making fun of themselves for the sake of the plot. The film has two diametrically different story lines running parallelly. On one side is a breezy love story and the other has an intense tale that's mired with politics and conspiracies. The two are, of course, interlinked, and the way the director has tied the two up is the clincher, albeit the narrative gets a tad long-winding through its course.

The biggest advantage for the filmmaker is Puneeth Rajkumar's voice over. He is lively as the bus Rajaratha and his friendly banter engages the audience. There is a love story on one side and then there are the fascist politicians and their partners on the other. Along the journey, one gets to meet a whole host of interesting characters traveling on the bus and get familiar with their idiosyncrasies. This is the part that might get the viewers a little distracted. But the second half, especially the climax, is something that is engaging and interesting. The film manages to draw a little empathy at that moment, which works to its advantage. Add to that some good art direction, cinematography and music score and it looks and feels like a good cinematic experience.

If one were to be picky, it would probably be the fact that the love story ends up longer while the other serious track could have had a little more fleshing out. The film, though, has an interesting editing pattern and the maker has tried to weave an interesting style of storytelling. Apart from Puneeth's narration, the other highlight of the film is Nirup Bhandari's acting. He is lively and lights up the screen as the playful Abhi — a stark contrast to his character in his debut. Avantika Shetty is affable too. P Ravi Shankar and Vinaya Prasad are endearing in the roles. In fact, one wonders why we don't see enough of Vinaya in as many movies now as her character reminds one of her memorable ones from the 90s.

Rajaratha might not be that perfect entertainer, but like it's characters — who try with their shortcomings — it is a bus ride that is worth getting onto once at least. After all, there aren't too many films devoid of the extra massy dialogues and over-the-top action sequences being made as often now.