Anthology films managed to find a second lease of life following the advent of streaming platforms. In India, the resurgence of the format could be attributed to the star-studded four-part feature Bombay Talkies (2013) which, as a grand attempt to mark the centenary year of Indian cinema, brought together the four noted filmmakers Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, and Anurag Kashyap. Since then, one has seen several engaging themes and topics being moulded into anthologies and, in turn, helping the short film format thrive in parallel. Lust Stories, Paava Kathaigal, the Modern Love franchise, Navarasa, Anger Tales, and Kannada's own Katha Sangama (both 1975 & 2019) are some of the noteworthy endeavours in this format.
In Guru Deshpande's five-film anthology Pentagon, the focus is on death and its mysterious ways of showing up unannounced. "If life is an unpredictable occurrence, so is death," says the unified chant of the five filmmakers, even as each presents their case in their chosen, unique tone and sensibility. When seen through an absurdist lens, death can be funny. When lust does not convert to love, death could occur as revenge. And when the same death arrives at the cost of dignity, it can stir up a revolution. Deshpande and his band of filmmakers use well-known filmmaking genres for their musings and package them as one wholesome entertainer that promises something for everyone.
An animated crow is the device that guides us through the film. Every time we spot it hovering over a character, death comes knocking soon after. It's a rather cheesy and direct allusion to the essence of the bird in Hinduism (that a crow descends to the ground only during death) but it also becomes a fun guessing game about how and when danger will strike next.
Of the five, the one I liked the most is Kiran Kumar's Doni Sagali, Munde Hogali, starring P Ravi Shankar, Pritika Deshpande, and others. There's a death in the large community of plantation workers, but the owner of the land (and their lives) does not allow for the body to be buried in his property because of their caste. "When I won't let your shadow drop on me, why will I let one of you take space in my ground," he says, in the most blatantly disparaging manner. But little does he know that this was the last straw and the shadows opposing him are about to unite and revolt.
Films about social hierarchy aren't uncommon in Kannada cinema anymore and Doni Sagali, Munde Hogali isn't the most novel attempt either. But what makes the film compelling is how Kiran Kumar subverts and communicates that death, after all, sees no distinction — "You could own the land today but both you and I will be mercilessly consumed by it tomorrow." The narrative surely rides on well-known tropes and even employs silly contrivances to move forward, but the charm lies in how it never allows us to outguess it. The revolt of the people isn't the end, but only the beginning of the story at heart and things are consistently thrown upside down from then on. Death does come calling again as promised (multiple times, in fact) but as a reformative tool that brings everything back to square one.
Kamaturanam Na Bhaya Na Lajja is another interesting segment of Pentagon. A young, naive boy who has 'virgin' written all over him, is lured by a rich widow named Jesse. The boy wants to be lured as well, but every time she makes a move, he recoils in fear. So, what does he do to gain confidence? He takes the help of a sex-chat platform to learn a few things about the human body and how he can welcome both Jesse and sex into his life. But a few days later, he finds himself embroiled in a murder case!
On paper, the short film does sound very promising, but director Raghu Shivamogga does not allow things to be either funny or enticing. He titillates a lot during the course and while that's alright, you would only wish that he hadn't used a TV serial-like tone to tell his story. The narrative moves at a good pace and some of the moments do sparkle, but the overall impact of the short remains a little underwhelming.
Guru Deshpande himself enters the Pentagon with the concluding short film of the feature, Karma. Kishore plays Kadamba Ramachandrappa, a controversial leader of Kannada activists in Bengaluru, and Pruthvi Ambaar is out to reveal the true identity and motives of this man. When the latter goes live on Facebook and reveals that Kadamba Ramachandrappa was and still remains an underworld don, the world takes notice and brings him down. But what if it turns out the man is actually reformed and everything said about him is untrue?
Deshpande throws a few interesting questions at us and luckily, does not resort to drawing binaries with his characters. Kadamba Ramachandrappa is stoic and unfazed but also human and it took an actor of Kishore's calibre to embody it all. As the story moves forward, we uncover more truths and gain more perspective. But just when you hope that the film will deliver the right punchline and conclude things, it goes off the rails and blows up in your face.
The other two shorts in Pentagon are Chandra Mohan's Mr Goofy's Cafe and Akash Srivatsa's Mysore Pak. The former is a Woody Allen-ish dark comedy about a man hiring a contract killer to die. The latter is a drama about a retired Kannada teacher (Vijanath Biradar) whose love for the sweet delicacy Mysore Pak leads him to discover a popular food delivery app. Both films have interesting premises but fail to make anything out of them — while Mr Goofy's Cafe is rendered an unbearable mess because of terrible staging, Mysore Pak ends up being nothing more than a sappy WhatsApp forward about taking care of one's parents.
Like any anthology, Pentagon, too, works sporadically but when it doesn't work, it becomes almost unendurable. The underlying theme of the film is vast and vibrant, and a few of the filmmakers even manage to use it well. But the film both lacks coherence and nuance, and relies too much on cliches to drive home the message. It also lacks the diversity that you want to see in these kinds of films — maybe a female voice would have fetched that?
All in all, it is an interesting attempt, no doubt, but there is no subtext or subtlety that elevates the film beyond the subject matter. There are a few really good moments to savour, though, and the film also offers an experience that is in stark contrast to most other Kannada films.