Stumble

Recentley i happened to see an Indian English movie called Stumble directed by Prakash Belawadi.I heard the movie's name long back but i couldnt watch it.Somehow i watched the movie recently and completeley dumb struck.Its a off beat movie you will remeber for long time because of the theme which suits the present situation better.I think the movie was slightly ahead of its time.It stars versatile Ananth Nag and evergreen Suhasini Manirathnam,undoubtedly the most intellect and accomplished actors of their generation.The movie shows the plight of Indian middle class family suffered by the software bust and financial scams.

The story revolves around Ananth's character Anand Rao who has taken voluntary retirement from his job and invested all his money in a mutual fund which goes for a financial crisis and closes down.His wife Nandini (Suhasini),a typical Indian housewife who keeps on encouraging her talented daughter and soothes her frustrated husband.His only son looses his job in USA and comes back to India and company his daughter works for folds up.

The film also casts popular Kannada screen villain and character actor Mukhyamantri Chandru as a crooked politician and head of a cooperative bank, comic actor Sihikahi Chandru as his side kick, and several other theatre actors from Bangalore. Kannada serial starlet and talented singer,who earlier acted in Belawadi's acclaimed Garva serial,M D Pallavi acts as the daughter with Ajit Hande as the son.

The cinematography of the movie is by American Clay Kelton who also acted as a Mauritius-based businessman and Russel Burns acts as British buisnessman

It also has some comical relief like a routine Indian commercial cinema,a guy who is working in an IT firms is the son of the president of ALL SOUTH INDIA RAMBHA FANS ASSOCIATION wants to quit the job and make movies with Rambha.(a famous cinema actress when the movie released).But the comedy scenes doesnt look like it has been added forcibly, just to make it commercial,like many Indian commercial cinemas.It just comes in the script and the character is very much part of the movie.

And performances of every actors are very good.What can i say about Ananth Nag and Suhasini.Everybody knows what kind of actors they are.And the journalist turned filmmaker Prakash Belawadi who was journalist of English dailies like Indian Express,The Asian Age and Bangalore Bias,did a neat job.Efforts of singer,actress M.D.Pallavi is worth mentioning.Kannada movie actor Mukhyamantri Chandru also acted well.His typical dialouge delivery and mannerism,which is familiar with the Kannada audience is continued here too.His English dialouge with Kannada accent suits his character very well.It is siad, the dotcom bust influenced Belawadi's script.

The movie was screned in Prakash Belawadi's debut film Stumble opened at the fifth International Film Festival of Mumbai (IFFM).And also won National Award for best English movie in 2003.