It is debatable whether Machcha is a Kannada or a Tamil word. Machcha or Machchi is a commonly used slang which is used extensively by the Bangalore underworld earlier, but which has now obtained dubious popularity even among young college students. Machcha signifies closeness in a relationship.
But this is not the case in the Kannada film Machcha. Here Machcha is an underworld hireling who assists a big don. By now, surely, the Kannada film audience must be tired of seeing the so called gangster films which almost have the same story and narration.
Daththu, the director of the film, had earlier assisted director Om Prakash Rao in a few films. And it looks like he has learned a few tricks from Rao. Some of the sequences have been shamelessly lifted from Tamil films like Chiththiruam Pesudhadi, Thalainagaram, and a Telugu one, Pokkiri.
Here's a sample. Mahesh Chandra who hails from a poor family in Mandya wants to become a police officer. He has the necessary qualifications but the police officers in the selection board want a bribe. Mahesh's mother sells off property to organise the funds. Despite this, however, Mahesh still does not get the job.
Instead, a police officer makes an indecent proposal -- he wants to spend the night with Mahesh's sister. Mahesh kicks him and leaves for Bangalore. In Bangalore, he ends up with a gang led by mafia don JK who uses Machcha to take care of his opponents. Machcha becomes a terror in the city.
Meanwhile, he falls in love with Aishu who wants to reform him. Machcha wants to change but his opponents including JK. do not allow him to do so. Finally, Machcha fights with his opponents, but in the process loses his mother.
One can imagine what would be the strength of the script with such interpolation of sequences. The story is so weak and narration so predictable that it becomes easy for the audience to make a clear guess even about the dialogues of the film.
Daththu makes another horrendous mistake in selection of his artists whose inexperience clearly shows. Non-Kannada artists like Rajan P Dev, Anand Raj, Sathya Prakash along with many Kannada artists like Dharma and others make a mess of their roles. Jeevan, who has been introduced in this film, turns out to be a weak performer. His height is an advantage in the fight scenes, but his dialogue delivery is terrible. The film's heroine Saritha Jain is another liability.
Daththu's other failing is that he has not been able to get good work from his technical team which include experienced cameraman AC Mahendar and young talented music director Arjun. It looks as if both the director and the editor are unaware of the importance of scissors in their job.
Machcha is an expensive film but fails to make an impact because of shoddy work by the director and his team. Give this a miss.
Rediff Rating: