Bhootakannadi Lohitadas’ maiden directorial venture, heralded the metamorphosis of a scriptwriter into a class director. But with Joker, his latest movie, Lohitadas has dumped all the hopes he raised.
The audience may lap up Joker. But, the film would have been as good or as bad, if it were directed by anyone other than Lohitadas.
We
don’t need a Lohitadas to tell plainly the story of ups and downs of a circus troupe. The story of Jokeris laced with banal comical situations, boring romance between two troupe members, a villain to spoil the party, one or two songs here and there and loads of tears.
Lohitadas fails to lift Joker from comical entertaining level to the aesthetic level of cinema, like his attempt in Bhootakannadi. A scriptwriter himself, Lohitadas consciously forgets the fact that if the story background doesn’t meaningfully contribute to the main idea of the movie, it is trite then. The simple fact that the story of Joker could have told in any other background, a drama troupe for instance, undo Lohitadas’ credibility as a first-rate director.
Considering that Lohitadas directed Joker, it’s a disappointment
