‘Maryade Prashne’ movie review: Nagaraja Somayaji’s relatable social thriller suffers from an identity crisis

In director Nagaraja Somayaji’s Maryade Prashne, Rakesh Adiga plays an aspiring area corporator. He remembers his mother talking about Bengaluru. “This city will grow, there will be high-rise buildings everywhere, and people will flourish. But, the important question is whether we, the middle class, will survive.”

In another scene, Sunil Raoh, playing Sathish, a delivery boy, talks about how one can never “settle” in life as there will always be a fresh financial hurdle after you solve the previous one. Poornachandra Mysore is Manja, a cab driver, and he tells his girlfriend, Lucky (Teju Belawadi), about the entitlement shown by the elite class during his rides.

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Maryade Prashne has several such small-yet-relatable moments about the struggles of the middle class. The actors playing the lead trio do a fine job of making us care for their problems. Nagaraja Somayaji’s debut begins as a dignified look at middle-class youngsters who provide for their families and try to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.  

However, the film suffers from an identity crisis when it attempts to show the class divide in society. Suri, Sathish, and Manja are childhood friends. One night, a tragedy changes their lives forever, and they go up against affluent men having money the trio can only dream of.

Billed as a “realistic revenge thriller“, Maryade Prashne gets stuck between making its protagonists morally right and forcing them to take a bold yet immoral step. The film has a superb idea of exploring the outcome of middle-class men fighting for self-respect by going toe-to-toe with the wealthy, who are willing to go any lengths to safeguard their reputation. However, in the process, the story loses focus.

Instead of a suspensful cat-and-mouse game between the two parties, Maryade Prashne spends a lot of time establishing the world of the upper class, where money and the position of power drive everything. Some of the English dialogues in those scenes are poor and unintentionally funny. 

Prabhu Mundkur (who recently starred in Murphy), who plays the antagonist, does a great job selling the often-disliked traits associated with the elite in his very first scene. With the bratty attitude of the villain made prominent early on, the screenplay should have accommodated a meaty mental and intellectual battle between the haves and have-nots.

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In the end, Maryade Prashne struggles to live up to its expectations, offering up a lukewarm climax. Its preachy tone further reinforces the stereotypes associated with the two classes and detracts from its impact.

Cinematographer Sandeep Valluri and Arjun Ramu are in great sync, keeping us curious about the proceedings. Director Nagaraj Somayaji and writer-producer Pradeepa make a promising debut, though a deeper exploration of their concept could have elevated the film further.

Maryade Prashne is currently running in theatres.

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