‘The Rise of Ashoka’ movie review: Sathish Ninasam’s film drowns in formula

These days, it’s possible to measure a film’s quality based on how the fight sequences are utilised in it. In a village near Mysuru, Ashoka (Sathish Ninasam) is on the verge of becoming a revenue officer. In the real world, a youngster overcoming financial hurdles to secure a government job and making a difference in his hometown is an inspiring story. However, in TheRise of Ashoka, the position has less value, because it’s the physical strength of the hero that decides the fate of the good vs evil battle.

Ashoka’s father (B Suresha) is a barber who gives his all to ensure his son’s education, a luxury for underprivileged people in a land ruled by Kutty Babji (Sampath Maitreya), a self-proclaimed hair merchant who oppresses the locals to keep his mighty business running strongly.

From start to finish, The Rise of Ashoka drowns in formulaic ideas. Kutty Babji is a classic example of characterisation gone wrong. The makers intended for him to be threatening, but he ends up being unintentionally funny. Babji hails from Madras, yet he fails to speak fluent Tamil. He has resided in Karnataka for decades, and yet, his Kannada is terrible. Sampath is a dependable actor, but in this case, it seems he surrendered to the caricaturish writing without asking vital questions that would have made the character more watchable.

The old-school nature of the movie’s screenplay accommodates an uninteresting romantic track between Ashoka and Ambika (Sapthami Gowda). Apart from their shared love for the shehnai, nothing is exciting about the relationship for us to root for the two lovers.

The Rise of Ashoka is short on logic as well. Ashoka is educated and old enough to understand the injustice meted out to his people by the upper caste. Yet, he is shown as clueless about his surroundings, and his discovery is shocking to him and silly to the audience.

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The age-old attempt to manipulate the audience with melodrama is evident in the climax. Ashoka is proven to have the ability to bulldoze any strong force from Babji’s team. Yet, he waits for something embarrassing to occur to Ambika before he unleashes his maximum power to destroy his enemies.

The Rise of Ashoka is a classic example of Kannada filmmakers lacking the skill to tell a compelling anti-caste narrative. Lackadaisical attempts at stories about discrimination will only impact the genre, as audiences will lose faith in it.

The Rise of Ashoka is currently running in theatres