''Manmatha'' is a 2007 Indian

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

-language

comedy drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

directed by N.Rajesh Fernandes. starring

Jaggesh Eshwar Gowda (born 17 March 1963), known professionally as Jaggesh, is an Indian politician, film actor, director and producer, who mainly works in Kannada cinema. Known for his roles in comedy films, he is popular by the moniker Navarasa Naya ...

and

Gurleen Chopra Gurleen Chopra, also known as Gurlen Kaur Chopra, is an Indian actress and model. She has appeared in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada and Punjabi films. Early life Gurleen Chopra was selected as "Miss Chandigarh" in her early age. She ...

in a

dual role A dual role (also known as a double role) refers to one actor playing two roles in a single production. Dual roles (or a larger number of roles for an actor) may be deliberately written into a script, or may instead be a choice made during produc ...

. The film is a

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both the mainstream film industry ...

Kunjikoonan ''Kunjikoonan'' () is a 2002 Indian Malayalam-language romantic comedy film directed by Sasi Shanker and produced by Milan Jaleel. The film's script was written by Benny P. Nayarambalam, based on his own stage play ''Vikalanga Varsham''. It star ...

'' (2002). The film was released to mixed-to-negative reviews but was a box office success.

Plot

Putswamy is an ugly village youth who covers up his handicap with humor. Despite jibes directed at him, he looks for a bride with the help of his friend. Soorya is a violent college student who loves his classmate, Priya. She comes across Chinna, who assures her that he will get her married to the man of her heart. She is killed in a fracas involving a gangster. Meanwhile, the hunchback Putswamy comes across an orphaned poor blind girl, Lakshmi. He wins her heart by helping to transplant the eyes of the deceased Priya to Lakshmi, who regains her vision. This results in a fight between Putswamy and Soorya as to whom Lakshmi belongs. Putswamy is a hunchback, so he decides to leave way for Soorya. But fate has something else in store for him.

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Bharathi Das. The songs "Kunjande" and "Kadanje Chandanamo" from the original Malayalam film was reused here as "Hunnima Banne" and "Danthada Bombe".

Reception

R. G. Vijayasarathy of ''

IANS Indo-Asian News Service or IANS is a private Indian news agency. It was founded in 1986 by Indian American publisher Gopal Raju as the "India Abroad News Service" and later renamed. In December 2023, Adani Group, Adani group, known for its clos ...

'' rated the film two-and-three quarters out of five stars and wrote that "''Manmatha'' will be remembered the performance of its lead artists and a neat narration. But there is nothing special about this film". A critic from ''

Rediff.com Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

'' rated the film two-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote that "If ''Manmatha'' is slightly above average, it is only because of Jaggesh and Komal". A critic from ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' gave the same rating and wrote that "Director Rajesh Fernandes should know that Jaggesh's forte are his mannerisms, body language and dialogue delivery. In Manmatha, the director has him playing a physically challenged character -- a role which hardly exploits his talent in this love story".

References

External links

*{{IMDb title 2000s Indian films 2000s Kannada-language films 2007 films 2007 romantic comedy films Films about lookalikes Indian romantic comedy films Kannada remakes of Malayalam films