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'Miss California' - unimpressive fare about NRIs
By R.G. Vijayasarathy, Indo-Asian News Service
Film: "Miss California"; Cast: Janu, Diganth, Sowmya, Sarath Babu, Geetha, Dattanna and Jayanthi; Director: Kodlu Ramakrishna; Producer: Mallika Dattatreya; Music director: Ravi Dattatreya
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"Miss California" is a film based on C.N. Muktha's novel "Megha Mandara". The script and dialogues have been penned by journalist Vagdevi and the project was backed by a rich Kannadiga NRI.
In spite of that the film has not turned out to be impressive mainly because of an incoherent script and inadequate direction by Kodlu Ramakrishna.
Like other films produced by NRIs - "Paris Pranaya", "America America", "Preethi Prema Pranaya" and "Poorvapara" - "Miss California" too is about a Kannadiga family living abroad.
As expected it has young NRI Kannadiga characters who are in search of their identity and keen to know more about their culture and traditions.
However, the film has positive points too like good visuals shot abroad and in the misty interiors of Theerthahalli.
Kodlu, who has made some award-winning and novel-based films like "Udbhava", has extracted good performances from veteran artists Sarath Babu, Dattanna, and Jayanthi. But the younger lots couldn't match the performance of their seniors.
The story is about wildlife photographer Diganth who lives in Theerthahalli. He wins an award and goes abroad to receive it.
In the US, he meets his relatives who are settled there. He also meets a young girl, Janu, who is fascinated by Indian culture and traditions. She is the daughter of Prasad (Sarath Babu) and Shakuntala (Geetha), also NRIs.
Janu comes to Karnataka with her parents to attend a marriage and revives contact with Diganth. In Theerthahalli, Janu also meets Sowmya, who has been brought up in a traditional atmosphere and makes efforts to stop her forced marriage.
Though Janu's parents want to take her back to the US, she is forced to stay in India because she has lost her passport. During her prolonged stay she becomes close to Diganth despite resistance from Sowmya who is secretly in love with him.
Janu understands Sowmya's plight and decides to sacrifice her love for Diganth and returns to California to win a beauty contest.
The film has average music by Ravi Dattatreya but cameraman A.C. Mahendar's work is impressive.
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