GGVV: Team(s) from bylanes of ‘Mangalore World’

Review by Soorya Kumar

By now you would have read or watched many reviews about the recently released Kannada movie ‘Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana’. You would have also come across what Raj B Shetty and Rishabh Shetty’s characters do in the movie. This story will not repeat all those points.

As a viewer from Mangalore, I am attached to a point that is associated with the movie — ‘underarm cricket’.

You heard it right, it is ‘underarm cricket’. Unlike other regions, this format of cricket is very popular among the people of Mangalore. You see tournaments being conducted in this cricket format.

As a viewer, I feel this format of cricket has emerged as a character in the movie. This format of cricket is what shapes Hari (Rishabh Shetty) and Shiva (Raj B Shetty) in the movie. It sees their entry, growth, and end of these characters.
The Director, Raj B Shetty, has finely crafted the characters around this cricket.

The entry of Hari and Shiva into underworld is linked to a cricket tournament, which incidentally was being played in memory of one of the victims of Shiva.

Shiva is very much fond of cricket and wants to ‘play’ it on the ‘pitch’. His activities outside cricket have similarities with the game.

Hari, who is not seen playing cricket in the movie, plays a major role both in the play and as a smooth operator of the world outside cricket in his domain of activities.

In the first tournament, the Shiva-Hari team loses the match. The narrator of the movie says that they win the area dominated by other underworld players by participating in this tournament.

One of the players, who was chosen by Shiva, performs badly both with bat and ball in the first tournament. The same player, who emerges as an allrounder in the later half of the story, plays his bit as a member of Shiva’s gang in the story.

As the time progresses, Shiva continues his association with the game of ‘underarm cricket’ and in underworld. However, Hari plays a different game altogether outside the game of cricket.

There is a scene where Shiva makes a choice for a bat that is quite heavy, and he uses that bat in his last game in the movie. That is the same bat, which sees the end of Shiva on field and Hari outside cricket.

While the characters of Shiva and Hari see an end, the ‘character’ of ‘underarm cricket’ continues.

Photo and Video credit: GGVV Twitter handle and trailer