Laughing Buddha

Police constable Govardhan has an happy life, both personal and professional. He is kind hearted and it shows in his work as well. After a get together event arranged at their police station, Govardhan's life falls apart when a strict senior officer visits their station and berates Govardhan for being overweight. Humiliated, Govardhan tries to reduce his weight through various means before settling with Naturopathy. In the meantime, local minister approaches the police for losing 50lacs to a fraud and wants it to be handled unofficially. When the suspect gets hurt on his head causing retrograde amnesia, his superior calls Govardhan back to help him out of this mess. How does Govardhan protect suspect and also solve the case, forms rest of the story.

It's a novel script driven by the kind hearted Govardhan's character. It does start off on a decent note, introducing all the main characters and establishing Govardhan's character primarily. All the fun is lighthearted till the senior officer humiliating Govardhan. Post this, the obvious humor set up where Govardhan tries hard to lose his weight follows. Once the plot involving the injured suspect in the minister's case gets going, the film loses it's team. The case in itself isn't that intriguing and the way it gets solved was all too convenient. The film dragged on post interval due to this and only a couple of comedy scenes did work solely due to Pramod's comic timing.

Laughing Budha is a story of a cop who has to lose weight to save his job. The movie is a lighthearted take on food addiction and subtle commentary on how to treat suspects during interrogation. Govardhan, a foodie, is a constable who is overweight. He loves food. He is good natured. There is a scene where he goes to interrogate a suspect and offers him food, ends up making friends with him and gets what he wants from the suspect. Though this seems outlandish at first, the film presents the reality as a stark contrast where the inspector beats up the suspect until he bleeds. Then comes the time when Govardhan must lose weight to save his job and that throws him off balance. He tries his best to lose weight in 90 days but as we all know, it is impossible to get fit in such a short amount of time. How he deals with this situation forms the rest of the story.

Pramod Shetty as Govardhan was an absolute charmer as the overweight cop. His innocence and his love for food was written beautifully by writer director M. Bharath Raj. Pramod Shetty exudes that kindness and his love for his food and family is evident in every frame. The supporting cast also did an excellent job in bringing the humor quotient and the dialogues by Anirudh Mahesh and Akarsh HP along with Bharath Raj kept the humor quotient subtle and sarcastic without going overboard. It is very easy in these kinds of stories to generate humor via body shaming, and we see none of that low effort humor here. The writing stays dignified and never feels awkward.

The story takes some uninteresting turns and some plot points that are unrealistic, but they are there in service of the story. I did wish the writers spent more time on generating humor via the numerous failed attempts that Govardhan makes. Although his job is at stake, he never really faces strong opposition to his actions at work nor his family.

Laughing Budha is a nice watch with family to sit back and reflect not only on one's food choices but also how we, as a society, treat suspects and undertrials. I recommend watching it.

-YT/@CinephileIndia2023.

I expected some good laughter, but there was almost none. They tried so hard to make it seem comical, but its not easy to write comedy for sure. The story too was just nothing special or even anything commendable. And ending was like not sure why they went that route, probably wasn't sure what to do with how that ended. Everyone's acting is just average, nothing really stands out. There is even less family dynamics, seems more like friends camp too, no real connection, forced love story angle, there was no daughter mother connection too, felt like they just got up some child to play the daughter, and a lady as mother, and some guy to play husband, father in law who runs an orchestra camp, and another camp of police who seems just chilling, like no real work sort off. There was no heart in the story or for the comedy or for relationship or even I don't know what big thing to bring Diganth too in this. He just came across as side character without any substance. Decent one time watch.

This film is a refreshing addition to Kannada cinema, proving that even low-budget movies can have a strong impact-something often seen in Malayalam films. The narration is well-executed, keeping the audience engaged for the most part. While a few scenes might feel slightly distracting, the story quickly regains its grip, pulling the viewer back into its world.

The performances are commendable, and the technical aspects, including cinematography and background score, are well-crafted. However, the film stumbles in its climax. While some might find it convincing, I personally felt it was a letdown. I expected a more fitting resolution, but the final moments felt both illogical and impractical.

With a tighter screenplay and a more satisfying conclusion, this film could have garnered even greater appreciation and reach. Despite its flaws, it's still a decent watch and a commendable effort in Kannada cinema.

Nice movie, with unnecessary violence. Better than super hyped movie.

All the characters were good!!

Nice msg, neatly made!! Decent movie after all the crappy violence.

Ppl with sense of humor will enjoy!!

No vulgar comedy.

After s long time a family watchable movie has been made.

No anti social element has been glorified.

A very true msg to everyone in the society on health and obesity.

Diganths character was fabulous.

Climax was truly unexpected.

Everyone has done justice to their character.

Many of the super hyped movies failed to give a message like this.

It highlights the difficulties and drawbacks of police department has been touched upon well.

One time watch must !!