Swaathi Mutthina Male Haniye - Living Dead meets Lively Death

Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye - Kannada - Drama, 100 mins, Prime Video

I had to choose this over 'Toby' (another movie with Raj B Shetty) - having watched the promos - i felt that his character may have a GGVV hangover -  i think i made the right choice.

This movie is not everyone's cup of tea  it is moody, melancholic, nothing "new" about the premise - The Life of a married woman (Siri Ravikumar), a Counsellor at a hospital for the Terminally ill and the bond she develops with a man (Raj B Shetty) who has made his peace with his fate. 

The movie, inspite of being only 100 mins long, takes too much time on telling us how Prerana (the counsellor) is a living dead (you are shown glimpses of her OCD, scrubbing the toilet, cleaning, eating dosa every day!)  who puts to ease her patients at the precipice of the afterlife.

SMMH ( from a classic 90s Kannada song) kicks off when Aniketh (Raj B Shetty) enters the movie (almost 40 mins in) - From then, the movie flows like a familiar drive to the hills, cool breeze, no surprises, you know how it feels, you know how it will end, yet you want to see how Raj B shetty can play the urban character without bringing his nativity.  He is very nice, subtle and classy - although sometimes you still struggle to intrepret his voice. 

Siri Ravikumar's sarees are very nice - she is ok - sometimes her expressions make you wonder if she is also terminally ill (i was thinking THAT may be the thing which makes this movie different!) . Rest of the cast is decent, the husband guy is really funny, the mother is a lovely cameo.  The movie  skims over many topics -  caregivers of the terminally ill, infidelity,  usage of opioids for sicknessv- all very surface level, without getting in too deep.

Couple of scenes are stand out - the sequence when Prerana's mother visits her  as well as  when the caretaker Prabhakar (who also played the husband in SSE - Side B) makes fish curry  - solid! Cinematography is superb- Ooty looks amazing!, music (mostly the score) is soft and melancholic. Overall - the movie is OK while it lasts - nothing to take away.