Kannadiga

Samanthabhadra (Ravichandran) is a protégé of Queen Chennabhairadevi. He gives up his sword for taking up preserving Kannada literature as his life's mission and the queen has lent him an island to build a Kannada temple as well as university. Portuguese attack leads to the capture of the queen and Samanthabhadra is forced to take an hefty loan to pay for the Portuguese who took over the island. The loan puts 8 generations of Samanthabhadra in debt and Gurubhadra (Ravichandran) is serving in the 19th century. He gets to meet German priest Ferdinand Kittel and with his help, he gets his island back in return for Kannada lessons. What other price Gunabhadra has to pay hereafter forms rest of the story.

Ferdinand Kittel is the author of the first ever Kannada - English dictionary and the way his character is woven into the story is commendable. For all it's ambition, the writing could've accommodated more impact of Jainism and it's contribution to Kannada. Instead it is glanced over to make way for the melodrama. The slow narrative only adds upto the runtime and the sound design needed to be better. Within the limited budget, one can see the team made an honest attempt in telling this story and V. Ravichandran excels with his subtle performance. As far as Kannada literature goes, the director has treated it with utmost dignity and it leaves a lasting impact.