...Re movie review: The house of the spirits

Director: Sunil Kumar Desai
Cast: Anant Nag, Ramesh Arvind, Loknath, Harshika Poonacha, Suman, G K Govinda Rao, Srinivasa Prabhu, Shivaram, Ramesh Bhat

After a series of remake movies followed with continuous ghostly affairs haunting sandalwood for the past few weeks, Desai comes with a spirited story. Though '...Re' could be thematically similar to Badal Sircar's play Ballabpurer Roopkatha, but the 'soul' here is true and honest. Despite a few shortcomings, it makes the audience to fall in love with the 'spirits'. At times with a bit of patience due to typical Desai's format of film making, it is a ...Re a hope in the end!

The best part of this laughter journey is Anant Nag. At his best, the versatile actor seems to have enjoyed portraying every bit of his character. The energy is high, and so his trademark natural acting ability. Ramesh Arvind, another bundle of talent, plays the character named Paapu, and with its entry into a mansion house kick starts the 153 minutes of 'clean' movie experience. Even as Paapu lands himself in the mansion house, he soon comes to know that the souls of his five ancestors are 'restless' for years without getting liberated.

With an ability to only hear the voice of his five ancestors, Paapu gets to know the reason behind the state of his ancestors. The brilliance of Anant Nag along with the rest of the veterans make it even more pleasant, watching the escapades of all the spirits and their unique characterisations - one who cannot come out of a photo frame, another always on the horseback, and so on! However, sometimes few prolonged scenes never seem to end spoiling the fun. Paapu has to marry the right one, and with the marriage the souls are set to liberate and hence comes comes a patchy plot of romance.

Another big relief is of course the beautiful Harshika Poonacha, who has been stressing for a long that she consider ...Re as her debut film despite working in more than 20 films, for a special reason. And, yes this marks as one of her best in her career so far. While the first half moves on its own condtions, Desai starts hurrying up once it gets close to the climax. Ramesh Aravind looks as good a newcomer and undoubtedly acts as good as an experienced campaigner. A good watch especially when Anant Nag, Ramesh Aravaind, the veterans have put their souls into the characters.