Mungaru Male Completes One Year at PVR Cinemas, Bangalore

‘Mungaaru Male’ has completed one year at PVR Cinemas, Bangalore. It was released on Dec 29, 2006. This is the first time in the history of multiplex cinemas in India that a feature film has run for a year and it is not a Hindi or an English film. It is a Kannada film!

Lot has changed over this one year. The hero of the movie Ganesh is the most sought after hero in Kannada industry now and earned himself a tag ‘Golden Star’! The films starring Ganesh, which were released this year, have been major money spinners at the box office. The list goes like this – ‘Hudugaata’, ‘Cheluvina Chittara’, ‘Krishna’. The heroine of this movie Sanjana aka Pooja Gandhi too had a wonderful year. The films which starred her have been successful too. Her list of films goes like this – ‘Milana’, ‘Manmatha’ and ‘Krishna’. One can proudly say that this is the movie which brought a star value to the Kannada film directors. Director of the movie Yogaraj Bhat is undoubtedly the No.1 director in Kannada film industry now. His forthcoming movie ‘Gaalipata’ starring Ganesh, Diganth and Rajesh has already created waves. And how can one forget Jayanth Kaykini whose compositions won the heart of all Kannadigas! He is one of the top lyricists in Kannada now. His compositions - ‘Ninnindale’ from ‘Milana’ and ‘Ee Sanje Yaakaagide’ have been topping the numbers. When ‘Mungaaru Male’ was released a year ago, there was not much media publicity to the movie. As far as I can remember there was an article in ‘Roopatara’, a Kannada film magazine, regarding this. Word of mouth and then media publicity followed and made it one of the most successful movies in this part of India. But things have changed for better. ‘Gaalipata’, the much hyped movie today is talked in almost every private TV channel in Kannada. ‘Mungaaru Male’ brought audience who did not watch a movie in theatres for ages. Not only native speakers of Kannada but other language speakers in Bangalore too had seen the movie. Now there is even a web page in Wikipedia dedicated to this film ‘Mungaaru Male’. Hurray!

Now everyone in Karnataka is eagerly waiting for Yogaraj Bhat’s next venture ‘Gaalipata’. One thing is sure from the trailers of the film: that cinematography of the movie is far superior to ‘Mungaaru Male’. However hard you try, you cannot avoid comparisions as ‘Mungaaru Male’ has set a bench mark for the new age Kannada films.

Music of this movie has already been a hit. Title track starting - ‘Aakasha Ishte Yakideyo? Ee Bhoomi Kashta Aagideyo’ has already caught the imagination of the youth audience. Hats off to Jayanth Kaykini for providing beautiful lines in Kannada. As Yogaraj Bhat says you tend to stop predicting the story line as you watch the movie. We hope so and all the best to ‘Gaalipata’...

Regards,
Raveesh