BollyReview
Myna is a 2013 Kannada romantic drama (not to be confused with the 2010 Tamil film "Mynaa") starring Chetan Kumar and Nithya Menon. The film was inspired from a true story. The story begins by informing us that the brother of a politician has been murdered. As the prime suspect, Satya (Chetan) is arrested. While being taken to jail, Satya starts telling his story to police office Ashok Kumar.Satya was taking part in a competition (a silly version of Survivor it seems) in which he had to beg in a train to get the most money. He pretended to have a disability by sitting on a skateboard. On the train, he saw a girl Satya (Nithya) and fell in love with her at first sight. After some pleading, Nithya gives Sathya money which he refuses to hand over in the competition. He leaves the competition and continues to frequent the same train still pretending to be disabled to meet Myna. Eventually Myna too falls in love with him. On the day that both reveal their feelings to each other on the train, Myna's purse gets stolen and Satya suddenly springs up on his feet and runs after the thief. Myna is shocked to see that he is not disabled. Satya returns with Myna's purse but he is faced with a shocking truth about Myna. I can't tell you more as it will ruin the story. You must see the film to find out what this truth is and how the story unfolds.Myna is a good film. The strength of the film is the great direction and fantastic performances by Chetan, Nithya and Sarathkumar. Sarathkumar plays a good hearted police officer and he has added so much to this film with his performance. Knowing that the story was adapted form the real life experience of a police officer, we immediately connect with this character and can see things from his point of view.Although a bit old-school at times in the way that some scenes are filmed, Myna delivers a touching love story. The emotional scenes were written extremely well. Both Chetan and Nithya outperformed themselves, and got into the skin of the characters. Nithya Menon doesn't disappoint and shows once again that she is one of the best actresses to come along in recent years in South cinema. This was a difficult character to perform but she did an excellent job and proved her versatility as an actor.Honestly, Myna is a breath of fresh air in the romance genre as romance in most recent films these days are underdeveloped. We often see characters develop a relationship in mere minutes and most of our time is passed with ridiculous fight scenes and hero-villain melodrama. But here, in Myna, we have a well developed love story that truly touches the heart and leaves a lasting impression. I won't deny that I cried in a few instances. The fact that something similar to this story really happened gives the film a great, down- to-earth dimension. I highly recommend this film. It's a must watch.
