Minchina Ota brings back memories for the fans of late actor-director Shankar Nag. Why? Well, Shankar Nag's first Kannada film was titled Minchina Ota and starred Anant Nag, Priya Tendular and Lokanath.
In that film the Nag brothers played small-time criminals. In the new Minchina Ota too we have brothers in the lead though the story line here is different.
Directed by young award-winning director M R Ramesh of Cyanide fame, the new Minchina Ota has been inspired by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's classic telefilm Duel.
Unlike Duel, however, Minichina Ota, which stars Vijaya Raghavendra, his brother Sree Murali, Lakshmi Rai, Rangayana Raghu, Suman and tennis star Krishna, fails to make the grade as a taut suspense thriller.
The plot is simple: Bhadra lives with his family members in a slum. He and his group of friends are rivals of another group headed by Vijay, a middle-class youth. Both Bhadra and Vijay befriend a girl from the city. Things get ugly when the girl chooses Bhadra over Vijay. Furious with the couple, Vijay creates all kinds of bottlenecks for Bhadra. How things get resolved make up the rest of the story.
So, how does Minchina Ota fare?
Well, let's list out the positives first. The film has it's share of engaging moments. Manju scores well in the action sequences. Murali too excels in the fight sequences. Vijaya Raghavendra and his brother Sree Murali do their bit competently.
Music and cinematographer too is not bad. Both V Manohar (music director) and P Rajan (cinematographer) have done their job well.
Now for the drawbacks. The main culprit has to be the script (or lack of). The story and screenplay, which has been credited to Ramesh is so weak that the audience started yawning right from the start.
To make things worse, Ramesh has added too many elements in the story line which only manages to confuse the audience rather than engaging them. Plus, the film's pace slows down at some parts.
Another drawback is that veteran artists like Rangayana Raghu and Umashri have over-acted in most of the sequences.
So, what is the final verdict?
Minchina Ota, despite competent performances from Vijaya Raghavendra and his brother Sree Murali, tests your patience.
Rediff Rating: 
