Nalla

Starring: Sudeep, Sangeetha, Mumtaz, Srinath, Naveen Mayur, Apoorva, Chitra Shenoy, Tara, Bullet Prakash,
H.G. Dattatreya
Director: V. Nagendra Prasad
Producer: Kavya, Shreyas, Spurthy
Music Dir: Venkat-Narayan
Lyricist: V. Nagendra Prasad
Singers: R.P. Patnayak, Narayan, Srinivas, Tippu, V. Nagendra Prasad, Harini, Unnikrishnan, Nanditha, Malathi,
Sudeep, Lakshmi, Rajesh
Distributor: Sri Ganesh
Genre: Romance, Drama

Synopsis
Prashant alias Pacchi (Sudeep) is a car-mechanic, who works with his chief mechanic (Bullet Prakash), and several other mechanics. One day they don Police uniforms and go off to prevent a gang war near the temple, by beating up the rowdies! They are successful, but are arrested for impersonating the Police. Then the Maruti showroom owner (Srinath) comes to bail them out. Pacchi had done him a favour some time ago, and he had seen how he had stopped a gang war erupting that day at the temple. He gives Pacchi a key. It is for a Garage he owns, in Hanumant Nagar. He wants Pacchi to run the Garage for him. Pacchi and his friends set off: the entrance to the Garage is blocked by a rowdy called Ravi – Pacchi makes short work of getting rid of him and his men. Pacchi then lives with his men at the Garage. Madhu (Mumtaz), a girl who lives near the garage, is in love with Pacchi.
The Maruti man and his wife, Sharda, have a problem at home. Their daughter, Preeti (Sangeetha) is mentally retarded, having a mental age of eight, though she is about twenty years old. She has a little white dog, Romy, who goes everywhere with her. She is under Psychiatric care, but the Doctors have so far been unable to help her. Sharda, who is a Doctor, has been asked to lead a medical team from the hospital to help people who have been injuring in flooding in Assam. Her husband tells Sharda to go, saying that he will look after Preeti.
One night, Preeti and her father go to the fair, but Romy runs off, and Preeti chases him, till he jumps through the open door into the backseat of a car, followd by Preeti, whilst the driver is fixing the engine. He puts the bonnet down, and drives off, and finds that he has a passenger, a mad girl and her dog. He stops to investigate – and Abdul, a notorious gangster and murderer, gets into the car with two of his men, and insists that Pacchi drive them to where his man are waiting for him. The men want Pacchi to go, and leave the girl with them, but he fights them all, and saves the girl from their evil clutches. He takes the girl and Romy, her dog, back to the Garage. Madhu is extremely jealous, for she loves Pacchi.
Preeti’s father does not want to notify the police or the media about his daughter, because her mother, Sharda, might die of the shock, if she heard that her daughter was missing – he decides to look for her himself. Pacchi lovingly looks after the madcap girl and Romy, with the help of his fellow mechanics. She gets into various scrapes, one of them with a blind beggar (H.G. Dattatreya), whose flute she takes and wants to keep. Pacchi eventually takes Preeti to see Dr. Sarala Desai (Tara), a Psychiatrist. On the way, Romy sees Preeti’s father, and jumps through the car window and runs to him. Dr. Desai promises to try to cure the girl, at a cost of Rs. 1 lakh, which Pacchi raises by selling the Garage. Preeti is afraid to be left by Pacchi in the hospital, because a bond has developed between them, but Pacchi reassures her, and calls her “Chinnu” for the first time. He visits her regularly in the hospital, and Dr. Desai tells him that she has never met someone like him, who took in an unknown girl, cared for her, and arranged her treatment. She tells him that she can see that he is in love with her.
However, it seems that after Pacchi left Abdul and his gang, that they were murdered, and an eye-witness, a young lad, saw Pacchi attacking Abdul. Pacchi is arrested and tortured by the Police, but he protests his innocence, saying that Abdul was still alive when he left him. He is not believed, until after a few days, the Police capture the real murderer, and he is released. He goes to the Hospital to see Chinnu, but she has run away from the hospital, and Dr. Desai does not know where she has gone, or whether she has been cured.
Next day, Pacchi has to drive to the airport to pick up three passengers, Srikanth and his parents. Preeti’s father has arranged for her to be married to Srikanth. Then Pacchi finds out that Preeti is none other than Chinnu, the girl he loves. She has been cured, and remembers nothing of the time of her madness, the time she spent with him, the care he took of her, and her time in hospital. He feels that, as he is a mere mechanic, he is not worthy of her. But he loves her. How will the story continue? However, Preeti comes to know that a person known as Pachchi has helped her and she starts searching for the person without realising that Pachchi has now become the driver of her car. Watch the film to find out how the story ends.

Songs:
1. Mallige Mallige Madammu
2. Malage Malage Gubbimari
3. Nijaana Nijaana
4. Hucchhu Preeti
5. Machha Dov Hodyodege
6. Huduga Yelli Nee [Bit]

Released Year: 2004
Running Time: 145 minutes/Colour/Kannada

Review
This is a delightful film, which shows Sudeep both as an action hero, and as the kind, loving, gentle character which he plays so well. Sangeetha is excellent as the “mad girl”, a girl of around twenty with a mental age of eight. She is very convincing in that role, which has obviously been carefully researched in writing the script, the direction and the acting. All the characters are well cast, and well acted, Bullet Prakash, those playing Madhu, Preeti’s parents, Dr. Desaiand, and even H.G. Dattatreya, as a blind flute player, who has a small but pivotal role in the film. It is a film with a feel-good factor, a film which shows the self-sacrifice that is an integral part of Indian Culture. The songs are great, a continuation of the story. This is a “don’t miss” film.

5 stars

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]