Paddehuli Review: A formulaic musical narrated with style and elevated by Shreyas Manju's performance

The much-hyped Paddehuli makes for a perfect launch pad for Shreyas Manju, son of veteran producer K Manju. A musical, the film has a number of songs rooted in Kannada culture, great dancing, edgy action and a touch of emotions. Though the story is not all that original, director Guru Deshpande presents it in such a way as to make it seem fresh.

Director: Guru Deshpande
Cast: Shreyas Manju, Nishvika Naidu, Ravichandran, Sudharani and  Chikkanna

The film depicts the story of a middle-class boy, Sampath Kumar (Shreyas Manju), an engineering student from Chitradurga who dreams of becoming a musician. Along with two of his close friends, he lands up in Bengaluru. The sacrifices he has to make to turn his passion into his profession makes up the core of the plot.

Paddehuli, with its exploration of teenage romance and well-shot action sequences, is likely to appeal to the college-going audience, while its comedy and witty dialogues keep audiences of all ages laughing throughout. 

Though we sense some hesitation in Shreyas' performance, especially when he's playing a school boy, the newcomer eventually gets better on screen. His dancing skills, however, are quite good. Nishvika Naidu is given scope to perform and uses it well. Ravichandran and Sudharani, who play Shreyas’ parents, are a big support to the film, while Rakshit Shetty appears in a pivotal inspirational role and Puneeth Rajkumar makes a cameo appearance in the climax. The supporting cast of Chikkanna, Amit, Dharmanna, Aishwarya Prasad, make their presence felt in the film. There also some references to Sandalwood legends, Dr Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan and Ambareesh, which work well.

Considering the film is a musical, composer Ajaneesh Loknath plays an important role in it, and he's provided some exemplary tunes, some of which are poems turned into songs. Cinematographer Chandru has done a neat job with the visuals. Despite being a formulaic love story, Paddehuli stays entertaining thanks to being narrated with style.