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Bookmark this pageDeveeri (1999)
Director: Kavitha Lankesh
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Adapted from a novel by P Lankesh, in the Kannada dialect, this first feature is an arresting, lower depths portrait of the Bangalore slums during elections for the provincial governor. It follows 12-year-old Kyatha (Manja), a lively lad, who skips school, runs errands and lives in a government 'sponsored' shack under the watchful eye of older sister Deveeri (Das) whose innocence he comes to suspect (she says she 'carries bricks by night', but is in fact a prostitute). Fine location work and rich colour tones, with a non-strident, unsentimental but passionate take on the material, add up to a powerful condemnation of 'socialist' hypocrisy, corruption and male domination, tempered only by writer/director Lankesh's uncertain control of dramatics. Essentially, though, she builds immense sympathy for her young protagonist.Author: WH
Cast & crew
Director: Kavitha Lankesh
Producer: Bharathi Gowda, Arathi Gadasalli, Hanumanth Reddy, Kavitha Lankesh
Cast: Manja, Nandita Das, Bhavana, Bhavana, Kashi, B Jaishree, Asif Farooqi full cast
Duration: 100 mins
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