Kannada Cinema In 2024: How Debutant Directors Inspired Confidence In Promoting Home-Grown Talent

In times when Kannada cinema’s big tentpole films have fallen direly short of expectations, smaller, more intimate cinema has often arrived as the saving grace. This year stands as a strong testament to this, as audiences witnessed a topsy-turvy time at the movies: while mammoth productions either left mixed impressions or emphatically tanked, a selection of debut efforts not only salvaged things, but also helped inspire confidence in burgeoning home-grown talent.

Just as in 2023, this year too has been characterised by an abundance of first-time filmmakers who each brought their distinct personalities to the fore. They all dabbled in different genres, relayed stories that felt personal yet universal, and emphasised that no idea was too small if the approach was novel and inventive.

Take Sandeep Sunkad, whose maiden feature Shakhahaari whisked us off to the quaint village of Melige in Shivamogga district. In this world, life unfolds languidly among the townsfolk, who are a bit too well acquainted with one another, while a gripping mystery featuring two oddball characters stealthily takes centre stage. Shakhahaari boasts of the restraint and intimacy that one often associates with Malayalam cinema, and Sunkad announces himself as a talent to watch for with his deft handling of a subject rich in both folklore and mystique. Rangayana Raghu delivers a performance to savour.

Similarly, Srinidhi Bengaluru utilised his own experiences as a theatre artist to create the subversive, mind-bending thriller Blink. This pulp sci-fi film flew under the radar when it arrived in cinemas, but grabbed everyone with how skilfully it weaved literature and poetry with the complexities of time-travelling. Blink’s initial theatrical run was nearly stifled by the overwhelming audience response to films like Premalu, Bramayugam and Manjummel Boys. But the Kannada film’s merits ensured that it had a proper crack at the box-office and emerged as an unlikely, much-needed commercial success.

Utsav Gonwar made his debut with Photo, a disquieting portrait of the mass exodus of migrant workers during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. Photo follows a daily wage worker (Mahadev Hadapad) and his ten-year-old son (Veeresh Gonwar) who chart a strenuous course from Bengaluru to their home village, enduring gross systemic negligence and apathy along the way. The film, although simple in its appearance, is a layered account of pain and loss.

2024 was also a year in which stories tethered to the Karnataka hinterland were spotlighted. Naveen Narayanaghatta made a great first splash with his funny and rooted drama Moorane Krishnappa, starring Rangayana Raghu (who finally got his due this year), Sampath Maitreya and a superb extended ensemble. The film’s charm lay in how it subtly married rural India’s  politics and aspirations with the way it loves, laughs and lives with abandon.

If Naveen Narayanaghatta chose satire as his device to underline his world's gullibility, Jaishankar Aryar employed neo-realism in his debut feature Shivamma Yarehanchinala to discuss how consumerism had seeped into our villages. The globally-acclaimed film, produced by Rishab Shetty, used a middle-aged, functionally illiterate woman (Sharanamma Chetti) as its unconventional protagonist to trace a tale of true-to-life struggle and resilience, while simultaneously pulling up exploitative corporate entities. Despite a cruelly limited theatrical release, Shivamma Yarehanchinala is one of this year’s best Kannada films.

Meanwhile, Prateek Prajosh's Chilli Chicken grabbed attention for its compelling exploration of migrant lives in urban India, delving into how social hierarchies are shaped by geographical biases. Prajosh approached this profound and weighty topic with lightness and optimism, his fresh take — the Manipur, Assam and other northeastern cast members dubbed for themselves in Kannada — enabling a meaningful discourse on the idea of identity, regionalism and finding a home away from home.

July ushered in two more noteworthy additions to this list of debutantes. 27-year-old Akarsh HP made a mark with his quirky, irreverent dark comedy Family Drama, which offset its underwhelming theatrical performance with a positive reception on OTT, proving that there was a strong appetite for films of all sensibilities. Mithilesh Edavalath, in the same vein, turned in the poignantly intense and layered hyperlink drama Roopanthara, which Raj B Shetty co-wrote (he’s credited with dialogues and additional screenplay) and starred in. Roopanthara might have failed to make an impact at the box office — the film, much like other credible titles this year, could have benefited a lot more from better marketing strategies — but Edavalath still managed to showcase his strengths as a unique visual storyteller.

Speaking of visuals, Chandrajith Belliappa burst onto the scene with his vibrant, carefully-crafted film Ibbani Tabbida Ileyali. An affectionate hark-back to the times when romantic dramas and comedies were widely consumed and loved (the Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar era, if you will), Chandrajith's film oozes passion and belief in every frame and is, in every way, a spectacle of its own kind. Ibbani Tabbida Ileyali confirmed that when a creative endeavour, regardless of its size or stature, is made with heart, it can forge an intimate bond with audiences.