5 reasons Allama is a disappointment

The film will take the audience back in 12th-century, and according to the director, Allama Prabhu's life journey was very hard to find because there was no proper information about Allama's birthplace or residences.
 
The director took almost three years just to compile the script. Nagabharana did a lot of research for the film. It took him one year to study the topic, another year to write it and a third year to make it into a script. 

 
However, the film, Allama fails to impress the audience because the director didn't show the evolution of Allama’s thoughts, his philosophy, and most of all, his poetry. 
 
Bookish dialogues:
 
The public was not able to relate them to the film because of the nature of the dialogues were text-bookish and colloquial. The director tried to create the mood of 12th-century by having the characters speak as they were reading out of a book.
 
Stage-play feeling:
 
The movie fails to create the dramatic moments and scenes on the big screen. For example, the assassination of King Bijjala passes in a few seconds.  Strangely, even at the end of the film, one does not gain a sense of what the film wants to say about Allama.

 
Lack of attention:
 
We all know that the movie is based on the 12th century Karnataka and is possibly difficult to recreate, but the director’s lack of attention to the minute details is a huge letdown. In the movie, you can see the modern-day freshly manicured lawns as surroundings to ancient temples. Bad CGI effects, poor artwork and more.
 
Jumping shots (Bad editing):
 
There are many shots where you can clearly see bad sequencing of the scenes. For example, in one of the scene, a sharana (Shiva devotee) is shown being criticised by Allama verbally for building stone temples. However, in the next shot, he is shown displaying his Kundalini power to Vedic priests performing a yajna without speaking a word. 

 
Confusing narration:
 
The movie needed an anchor or a good narrator to tell the story in a harmonious way. Often, they end up as disjointed segments in an otherwise incoherent film. 
 
For those who do not know about the life of Allama Prabhu, this film is a good beginning, but not necessarily the best introduction to one of Kannada’s greatest poet-philosophers. 

• Allama
• TS Nagabharana