Tony Movie Reviews

Jayateertha's second film as director after the successful Olave Mandara, had created many expectations. With Srinagar Kitty turning producer as well as playing the lead, the buzz around the film increased. The posters, songs and the trailers of the film was very stylish, posh and lavish. The film and its tagline; Ek Din Ka Sultan, made it clear that it was commercial to the core. But, wait a minute. The film is not a run of the mill commercial film. Though the main plot is a thriller in which Tony has to rescue his kidnapped lover by doing some mysterious tasks around Bangalore, Jayateertha has managed to add an artistic touch to it by blending two more narratives. These two alternate narratives are not sub-plots though and remain independent from the main track, though the message in all three tracks is the same; necessity can be satisfied but not greed.

The film starts with Kitty waking up in front of the Kempe Gowda bus stand in Majestic. From the very first shot, the shooting done in real locations across Bangalore, from Majestic, Basaveshwarnagar to Mysore Road catches attention. A mysterious caller has taken away all identifications from Kitty and tells him his girlfriend, Aindrita, is kidnapped and she will be killed unless Kitty completes all the tasks given to him by 6 pm. The tasks look not just mysterious but are obviously shady. Falshbacks reveal how Kitty got into the mess. It is a run against time for Kitty and does he manage to save his girl from death is the rest of the story.

The director adds two more tracks to the film and these are narrated in a different pace. These two tracks talk about why greed is not good and why happiness is a state of the mind. Along with the songs, these two tracks sometimes reduce the pace of the thriller. But they are here for a reason. The film thus becomes a perfect mix of a thriller and an artistic film.

The cinematography in the film is top class. The songs are good but too many for a thriller. Kitty has performed well, both as a dreaming youth and as a harassed lover. Aindrita Ray makes for a perfect pair. Apart from these two, the rest of the actors including Chandru, Suchendra Prasad, Ravi Shankar and Sharath Lohitashva have small but important roles. If you want to enjoy a thrill ride and get some message as well, Tony is the right film.