Mungaru Male

Name	Mungaru Male
Caption	Movie Poster
Director	Yograj Bhat
Writers	Yograj Bhat, Preetam Gubbi
Producer	E Krishnappa
Released	29 December 2006
Runtime	137 mins
Language	Kannada
Music	Mano Murthy
Lyrics	Jayanth Kaikini, Kaviraj, Yogaraj Bhat
Photography	Krishna
Starring	Ganesh Pooja Gandhi Anant Nag Padmaja Rao Sudha Belavadi

Mungaru Male ( ; ) is a 2006 Kannada language movie directed by Yograj Bhat and produced by E Krishnappa. The film stars Ganesh, Pooja Gandhi, and Anant Nag in lead roles. The film was a success, exceeding expectations with box office earnings crossing Rs 60 Crores, 400 days after its release. The film is believed to have shaped and strengthened the careers of Ganesh, Yograj Bhat and Jayant Kaikini.

This movie was the first in India for any language to be screened for continuously one year in a multiplex. It was remade in Telugu as Vaana and in Bengali as Premer Kahini in 2008. A Hindi language version is underway.

Background and development

Director Yograj Bhat had earlier dabbled in advertising and corporate films and they were critically acclaimed. His previous ventures Mani, starring Mayur and Radhika and Ranga S.S.L.C., starring Sudeep Sanjeev were not commercial successes at the box office. Bhat was disappointed, and he began working on the script of Mungaru Male. He had narrated the script to Puneet Rajkumar who rejected it. "Comedy Time" Ganesh, whose first film to be released in India, Chellata, was a moderate success, was involved in the script making stage and was curious to act in the movie. He liked the script and introduced Yograj Bhat to producer E. Krishnappa who was Ganesh's acquaintance. Krishnappa agreed to finance the film, since he knew Ganesh. Krishnappa, had mentioned during the making of the film that Ganesh was a kid, who had played on his laps and he's very happy to finance a movie starring Ganesh. Since Yograj Bhat was unable to cast well-known Kannada actresses, he signed on a relatively unknown actress, Pooja Gandhi, for the lead female role in the film.

Plot

The protagonist Preetam (Ganesh), on a visit to Eva Mall(a famous Mall in Bangalore) amidst a heavy wind, spots a pretty girl, Nandini (Pooja Gandhi). Whilst staring at her, he inadvertently falls into a manhole. Nandini rescues him from the pit, but in the process loses her heart-shaped watch she had just bought.

While accompanying his mother to Madikeri, Preetam confronts a man named Jaanu (Neenaasam Ashwath). Jaanu, who has been following Nandini, beats up Preetam thinking that he is in love with Nandini. Preetam, unaware that Jaanu has vowed not to allow any one near Nandini, trashes Jaanu and his gang in return.

In Madikeri, Preetam meets Nandini unexpectedly. He identifies himself and expresses his love towards her and offers to tie the watch as an indication for their marriage. Nandini, who is already engaged rejects his request. Still, Preetam vows to marry Nandini if she meets him again. In the meantime, Preetam discovers that his host in Madikeri, Col. Subbayya (Anant Nag) is Nandini's father, who is pretty much deaf and Nandini's marriage is a just a week away. Dejected, Preetam throws Nandini's heart-shaped watch away. But Nandini calls him over the phone and taunts him to return. Delighted, Preetam goes in search of her watch and brings it back. While searching it, he spots a rabbit, which he calls as Devadas and brings it along with him.

Since Nandini's friends are due to arrive from Mumbai for marriage, Preetam takes Nandini to the railway station. The train from Mumbai is delayed by five hours, so Nandini and Preetam decide to visit a nearby hill-temple. While returning from the temple, Preetam and Nandini are caught in rain. An old couple offers Preetam and Nandini to take shelter inside their hut. Preetam, still in two minds about expressing his love to Nandini, grabs a couple of toddy bottles, goes out in rain and starts drinking. However, when Nandini walks towards him, offering an umbrella, he is under a state of intoxication and tells Nandini that he'd better stay away from Nandini to remain a decent boy, rather than to propose to or elope away with her.

Nandini is now in love with Preetam and is in a dilemma as her wedding is due in a few days. Nandini requests him to take her to the top of a waterfall and expresses her love towards Preetam, standing at the edge of the waterfall.

Preetam, intent on marrying Nandini, takes her father, Subbayya for a morning jog to discuss his marriage with Nandini. But Subbayya a heart patient, tells Preetham that he's expected to die anytime and his only aim in life is to get Nandini married off to Gautam (Diganth). On the night before the marriage, Preetam drives away from the house without taking Devadas. He then starts drinking the whole night in a road-side bar. He finds Gautam, asking the bar-owner for directions to Subbayya's home. When Jaanu tries to kill Gautam, Preetam saves Gautam and convinces Jaanu that only Gautam is the best person to marry Nandini.

Next day, he drops Gautam to the marriage house, just in time for the marriage. He then declines to attend Gautam's marriage. Gautam asks for the heart-shaped watch as a remembrance but Preetham does not agree to give it. Preetam then leaves. Meanwhile, on the wedding day everyone is searching for Preetam, but he is nowhere to be found. His mother is the only one who know the truth about his love, and is worried of his whereabouts, but does not show her worry.

With a sigh in his eyes, Preetam watches the arch proclaiming "Gautham weds Nandini". As he is leaving, he spots Devadas and takes it with him. He drives towards Bangalore, all the while expressing his disappointment to Devadas, but later he comes to know that Devadas is dead.

Cast

"Comedy Time" Ganesh as Preetam, the protagonist of the film who falls in love with a woman who is already engaged to be married

* Sanjana Gandhi who changed her name as Pooja Gandhi as Nandini, portrays the lead female role in the film.

* Ananth Nag as Colonel Subbayya, Nandini's father who is befriended by Preetam during the course of the film

* Sudha Belwadi as Kamala

* Padmaja Rao as Bablee

* Diganth as Gautam, the man that Nandini is set to marry

* Neenasam Ashwath as Jolly

Crew

Director - Yograj Bhat

Producer - E. Krishnappa

Cinematography - Krishna

Editing - Deepu S. Kumar

Story - Preetham Gubbi

Dialogues - Yograj Bhat/Preetham Gubbi

Lyrics - Jayanth Kaikini, Yograj Bhat, Kaviraj, Shiva

Choreography- Harsha,Raghu

Art - Ismail

Music - Mano Murthy

Singers - Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan, Hemanth Kumar, Kunal Ganjawala, Shreya Ghosal, Priya Hemesh, Stephen & Sunidhi Chauhan.

Production

Sources say that up to 80% of the scenes in the film were shot in the rain. The film has also been released with 150 prints in Karnataka. This film ran to packed houses on weekdays in PVR Multiplex and the only film in the world to have completed one year in a Multiplex. . Mungaaru Male was being screened at full houses, 1 year after its release, in more than 26 centres. The film has totally grossed Rs.28 crores.

The film was also released in Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, USA, Australia and Canada. The success of the film and the enormous cash surplus generated by the movie, caught attention of Income Tax authorities and it was reported that IT Department raided the producers offices.

Critical response

The film received lukewarm to average reviews. Rediff.com awarded three-star (meant quite good) rating and praised its cinematography, technical values and acting only of Ganesh and Anant Naag, but opined that the story was flawed.Nowrunning.com felt that the film lacked a credible story line and gave too much importance to music and song picturisation. Kannada portal Thatskannada.com praised the film for its content, narration and usage of rain as a metaphor for love. Indicine.com gave it Four stars. This film caught the fancy of all in Bangalore and around.

Influence on actors' careers

Ganesh went on to be "Golden Boy" of Kannada film industry and is known as "Golden Star". He has become a major draw and all his movies after Mungaru Male have garnered success in 2006-07. Sanjana Gandhi, who portrayed the female lead role in the film, was relatively unknown prior to Mungaru Male. After the success of the film, she has received offers of roles in many films. . Diganth, who played a cameo in the film got recognition from this film, although he had made appearances in Sandeep Malani's Miss California and SMS 6260 earlier.

In other languages

The remake rights of Mungaru Male were acquired by Mr Suryaprakash Rao of SPR Entertainers India Private Limited for Rs. 1.5 crores for both the Tamil-language and the Telugu-language versions. The Telugu-language version was released in 2008 as Vaana, meaning rain.

Awards

The film was awarded the best Kannada film award for the year 2006-07 by the Government of Karnataka (totally seven awards from Government of Karnataka) . Additionally, it also won two Filmfare awards, for best music, awarded to Mano Murthy, and best direction, awarded to Yograj Bhat. The most vexing and unanswerable question is why it did not win a single national award from the Government of India. It had lots of qualities to win at least one but went unnoticed by the National Award committee.

DVD

The DVD of the movies is released with English subtitles and it is available in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound,namorphic Widescreen Enhanced (16:9),all Region DVD,NTSC format,Interactive Menus of Songs & Scenes For Easy Access,Digitally remastered from the original film.

Book on the Movie

The Director of the movie Yogaraj Bhat wrote the making of 'Mungaru Male','Haage Summane' book was released on the occasion of silver jubilee function of the movie.

See also

Vaana

Premer Kahini

Notes

References

External links

Listen To Mungaru Male Songs

Category:Kannada-language films Category:2006 films Category:Indian films