Director Somu Kengeri | photo credit: special arrangement
Somu Kengeri is all set with his first Kannada feature film Magale – a colored darkness, which is releasing this week. Somu quit his job as a telecom engineer to become a film producer. He studied the art of filmmaking at an academy run by director Guruprasad in Bangalore. “I have learned everything from script writing to dialogue writing to direction. Then worked as an assistant with Guruprasad,” says Somu, who worked with award-winning film directors Sunil Kumar Desai and Badigar Devendra (whose film In won an award and a special jury mention at BIFFes 2023).
magale, Somu says that it revolves around a young girl Aadhya, who is brought up by her father after her mother separates from her marriage. The film focuses on Aaradhya’s emotional struggle when her mother re-enters her life, hoping to pick up where she left off, though Aaradhya and her father have moved on.
movie poster
Well-known theater and screen actress Supreeta Raj is in the lead role. Greeshma Sridhar, Guru Raj Shetty, Bindu Raxidi and Bishan Shetty are the other actors who feature in this film. The film is a family entertainer as well as a suspense thriller and has been shot extensively in the rural areas of Coorg.
Somu says that the film is inspired by real events. “While working in South Africa, a friend and her daughter were going through a lot of emotional turmoil. We built the fiction around the story and brought elements of a thriller to the film.”
The film will be released in theaters on 21 April. “It was originally made for a digital release. We decided to go for a theatrical release and were struggling to find funds. That’s when our composers, AB Muralidhar’s friends from Japan, Makin and Sayuri, came on board as co-producers.
Makin is a Tokyo-based composer, arranger and producer who has worked on anime, television series, commercials and feature films in Japan. his recent works for films maku o orosuna It was released this January. Sayuri is a singer, songwriter and musician, also from Tokyo.
a scene from the movie
“He was in Bengaluru on the day of the technical screening of our film. They went to see the film and were impressed with the story and decided to come on board as co-producers when they heard about our financial struggles for the theatrical release.
The film is produced under the banner of Z Net Communications and is slated to release on April 21.