Maryade Prashne Review: Self-respect is important and respect for others irrespective of their background and financial status is important. That is the theme of director Nagaraj Somayaji’s Kannada film Maryade Prashne which has been written and produced by RJ Pradeepaa. Set in Bengaluru, we are introduced to three close childhood friends - Satisha (Suneel Rao) who’s a delivery agent, Manja (Poornachandra Mysuru), a cabbie and Suri (Rakesh Adiga), a political party worker.

The plot

Satisha, Suri and Manja belong to the middle class and while each has dreams of their own, their daily struggles to take care of their families, pay off their loans, and try to save money, is a burden they bear with hope and a smile. Suri, who works with local MLA, believes that once he becomes a corporator with the MLA’s support, his life will be set.

Manja, on the other hand, is in love with Satisha’s sister Lakshmi aka Lucky (Teju Belawadi) and is trying hard to save up to buy a cab so that he can get married to Lucky and settle down. And Satisha wants to become debt-free so he can take care of his parents. In this scenario, we find them toiling away but one day, after an evening of drinking to celebrate Satisha’s birthday, the three friends end up in a fatal crash with a bunch of rich young men and tragedy ensues. Then it becomes a question of respect. So, how does the tragedy lead to this?

What works and what doesn’t

Director Nagaraj Somayaji and writer-producer RJ Pradeepaa have tried to give us a slice of life story about three thick friends and how a tragedy in their lives throws up the stark class divide between the haves and the have-nots. While the theme for the need for respect is included in the story, the story also suddenly veers off into the direction of drunk driving and how tragedies around that affect the lives of people. The director and writer have tried to combine the two to show how this affects the middle class but does the film do justice to this? Sadly no.

Most of the first half of the film goes in trying to set up the film but the small middle-class struggles and stories that are narrated to build up each of the three friends are just not compelling enough. The stories used to show their middle-class status are very stereotypical and not fresh for the audience. Sample this: Suri is a local henchman for the MLA. Satisha and a group of delivery boys are taken to the police station because they are suspected of selling drugs. Satisha’s mother has pawned her jewellery at a Marwari shop and wants him to repay the loan to retrieve it. Manja doesn’t have money to pay the daily rent to the cab owner. And 45 minutes of the film goes into narrating these stories. It is only when the tragedy occurs that the story actually moves forward and starts to take shape.

In the second half, the director and writer bring out the issue between these middle-class boys and the rich guys, who again are very stereotypical. Rocky (Prabhu Mundakar), PK (Shravan Kumar), Nikhal (Hariharan) and Shetty (Shine Shetty) are the rich boys who take them on. These boys are shown as rich, loud, arrogant, aggressive youngsters who mouth dialogues like ‘you don’t know who I am’, keep waving around a gun and throw wads of cash around. Perhaps, the stereotypes should have been done away with and more focus on writing a story that was far more innovative and engaging. One must add that each of the actors were effective in their roles.

Maryade Prashne is a story about the class divide and drunk driving but both themes get lost in the film thanks to the dull story.

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