‘Kotee’ movie review: Dhananjaya gives it his all as an honest middle class man

Dhananjaya and Moksha Kushal in ‘Kotee’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement.

Dhananjaya’s titular character in Parameshwar Gundkal’s directorial debut, Kotee, reminds you of simpler times. Kotee loves the vintage ice candy and not the unique ice cream flavours available in today’s market, his mother (played by Tara) listens to retro Kannada music on a tape recorder, and Kotee himself is content with the child-like yet firm belief of becoming rich without treading the wrong path.

Living in a fictitious town called Janatha City, Kotee works as a cab driver and runs a packers and movers business, with a truck borrowed from the city’s most dreaded goon Dinoo Savkkar (Ramesh Indira as a formulaic villain). Kotee’s world revolves around his two siblings and mother; a family man is a done-to-death character trope, but Dhananjaya’s endearing performance keeps you invested in his character.

Kotee is also an interesting character, for he is rock-solid with his honesty despite facing several tempting situations to earn money through shortcuts. Dhananjaya underplays Kotee brilliantly, proving why he is tailor-made to play a middle-class hero.

Take the actor out of the film, and Kotee is a bland affair, with the plot taking an astonishingly long time to kick off. There are too many characters —  a female lead who is a kleptomaniac, a corrupt police officer, a feared gangster, a greedy catering company owner, and an ailing mother — with subplots involving them breaking the film’s flow. The consistent sudden deviations from the core theme (despite the director believing that he will join all the dots in the end) also make us wonder about the film’s ulterior point.

Director Parameshwar Gundkal spent several years in the television industry, and the template of a colourful soap opera drives his first attempt at cinema. Take the film’s only major flashback involving Kotee’s father; at a time when writers and directors are ditching the concept in modern-day filmmaking, a backstory to justify the protagonist’s motives feels irrelevant.

Kotee goes on for nearly three hours, and the runtime becomes a problem because many scenes don’t burst with energy. The family drama, barring Dhananjaya’s presence, comes across as too routine, and the mother-son sentiment gets stretched beyond what’s required for an engaging drama, reminding us of a TV serial.

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The utterly snail-paced screenplay gets dented by portions of predictability (like how it’s easy to guess the outcome of the heroine’s marriage) or long scenes trying to establish the sincerity of the protagonist. Kotee leaves it too late to reveal its central conflict. Till then, you are divided between admiring Dhananjaya’s performance and trying to stay patient with a plot that goes all around promising a grand finale… but doesn’t quite deliver.

Kotee is currently screening in theatres