Kirik Party

An engineering college in Karnataka. Karna starts his first year; the senior students bully the newcomers, the classes are full, the hostel is crowded and nobody cares about the coursework. He soon builds his own circle. Four years pass: fights, love affairs, cheating in exams, nights out and a death. Then the film jumps forward; Karna returns to the same campus years later and sees what happened there again. Rishab Shetty directs. Rakshit Shetty plays Karna and co wrote the screenplay. The narrative runs in two times: the campus years and the return. The present is given in black and white and the past in colour; the choice is not about memory but about the emptiness of the present. The film counts as a turning point in Kannada cinema. It was made on a small budget with no star cast and became an unexpected commercial success, after which many films were made in the same manner. The subject is that youth does not come back. The film appears to celebrate campus life, and the last section turns that around. The bullying of new students is shown inside the narrative without criticism, which is the most common objection made to it. Its music and its lines became widely known in Karnataka. Who it is for: viewers who like Kannada cinema and campus narratives. Who it is not for: it is long, there are many characters, and the narrative leans on local reference.