French Biriyani, the much-awaited direct-OTT offering, has commenced streaming on Amazon Prime from today. Directed by Pannaga Bharana and produced by Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar under PRK Productions, French Biriyani features Danish Sait and Disha Madan in prominent roles.
A not-so gripping tale to start with
To put across in a line, French Biriyani is basically about Simon, a foreigner who loses his bag in the city, and Asgar, a Shivajinagar autorickshaw driver who helps him locate his bag. Their short journey in the quirky streets of the cosmopolitan Bengaluru forms the crux of the plot.
Though the one-liner seems interesting, the story stops there. The movie struggles to engage the audience, and their only intention to thicken the plot seems to be through absurd characters, and slightly cringy comedy. Well, maybe, that was the intention of the makers in the first place.
The highlights
Although we may not laugh consistently throughout the movie, the makers have succeeded in evoking laughs at many junctures. The top credit must go to Danish Sait, whose Urdu-Kannada-Hindi mixed slang keeps our ears attentive. In line with his comedic genre, words such as ‘One-And-Half’ and ‘Putta lovdi maduve’ produce the instant chuckles. While Sal Yusuf is the only sensible character around, he also makes an impression with his acting skills. Rangayana Raghu, in his brief role, shows why he is rated so highly. A special mention must also go the guy who played ‘Muscle Mani’.
The technical departments
In the technical departments, Vasuki Vaibhav leads the pack, as both his songs and the BGM keep the proceedings lively. The cinematography is bright and suits the mood. Editing, although on point, could have been better, as the movie seems very long.
The Final Impression
French Biriyani does entertain you, although, only if you are willing to keep your logics and yearn for gripping content aside. Also, this is one movie that can be difficult to watch for the second time. The laughs are there, but most of them are strictly single-use. Nevertheless, for both Kannada cinema and Amazon Prime, French Biriyani is seriously a welcome relief.
