Karulina Koogu

1993 149’ col/scope Kannada d/s D. Rajendra Babu pc Aditya Movie Makers p D.R. Umashankari, Raju lyr/m Hamsalekha c Ashok Kashyap lp Prabhakar, Umashree, Vinaya Prasad, Srinath

A Church-like Hindu order provides the spiritual context for this unusual story about the extinction of a lower-class alcoholic’s family. The drunkard Mohan (Prabhakar, better known for villainous roles) is married to Sharada (Prasad), a cultured music teacher employed in a Hindu ashram, who tries to reform her husband. The villain in this allegory of a Hindu community is a Christian, Antony, who tries to rape Sharada and later kills Mohan shortly after Sharada is diagnosed as terminally ill with cancer. Sharada dies before she can find adoptive parents for her children, but the saintly head of the ashram (Srinath) does this for her. The film also has a few comic scenes, e.g. in a bar, where a series of jokes culminate in a song talking about the plight of Kannadaspeaking people in Bangalore city.

Film