''Dharma'' is a 2004 Indian

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

-language film written and directed by K. V. Chandrakanth, produced by M. G. Ramamurthy under Vasushree Productions, starring Darshan,

Sindhu Menon Sindhu Menon is an Indian actress, who has starred in Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil films. Early life Sindhu Menon was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, India into a Malayali family. She has an elder brother, Karthik, who worked as a Kanna ...

and Manisha. The film has musical score by

Hamsalekha Gangaraju (born June 23, 1951), professionally known as Hamsalekha, is an Indian film composer and a songwriter who works in South Indian cinema, predominantly in the Kannada film industry since the late 1980s. He is also a screenplay writer, di ...

. The film was released on 5 March 2004.

Cast

Production

A new heroine Jennifer credited as Monisha is signed in to play the second heroine. She had worked in a few Tamil films under the pseudonym of Nanditha. K. V. Chandrakanth who worked as an assistant to

P. Vasu Vasudevan Peethambharan, known professionally as P Vasu, is an Indian director, writer and actor who works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam language films. In a career spanning three decades, Vasu has directed over 64 films.

makes his directional debut.

will score the soundtrack while cinematography is handled by Sundarnath Suvarna.

Jai Jagadish Jai Jagadish (born 29 June 1954) is an Indian actor, director and producer in the Kannada film industry. Starting his career as an actor in '' Phalitamsha'' (1976), he went on to feature in over 300 films as an actor. In 1998, he turned producer ...

Doddanna Doddanna (born 11 November 1949) is an Indian actor in the Kannada film industry who has acted in about 800 films. He started his career as a theatre actor. During this time, he entered the Kannada film industry as a character actor. Early lif ...

Rangayana Raghu Kotturu Chikkarangappa Raghunath (born 17 April 1965), known by his screen name Rangayana Raghu, is an Indian film and stage actor, known for his work in Kannada cinema. Portraying mostly comic and negative-shaded characters, he has appeared ...

, Harish Rai, Bhagath Bhaagavathar and Ramesh Pandith portray other characters. The film was shot in

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

and

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

Themes

According to writer-director K. V. Chandrakanth, the central character Dharma enacted by

Darshan Thoogudeep Darshan Thoogudeepa (born 16 February 1977) known mononymously as Darshan is an Indian actor, producer, and distributor who works predominantly in Kannada films. One of the leading contemporary actors of Kannada cinema, Darshan established the ...

is an uncultured rowdy. The film marks his transition from a thug to a poet thus proving that the pen is mightier than a sword. Also the character of Dharma and his transition is similar to the life of

Valmiki Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the wikt:harbinger, harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on ...

and his evolution from a barbarian to a poet.

Music

# "''Hrudaya Nin Impada''" by Divya and Chethan # "''Kavya Amrutha''" by

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (4 June 1946 – 25 September 2020), also referred to as SPB or SP Balu or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, actor, music composer, dubbing artist, and film producer. He is wi ...

# "''Nam Hero Barthan''" by

Hemanth Kumar Hemanth Subramanya known by his stage name as Hemanth, is a playback singer in Kannada cinema. Early life Hemanth was born in a family of musicians at Bangalore, India. His mother Rathna Sastry is a classical singer and his father Subramanya ...

# "''Meghashyama Baa''" by

Rajesh Krishnan Rajesh Krishnan is an Indian playback singer and film actor. Although he is known for his works in Kannada films, he has sung in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and other languages Making his mainstream debut in the film ''Gauri Ganesha'' (1991) ...

and

Nanditha Nandita or Nanditha is an Indian feminine given name. Notable people * Nanditha (born 1978), Indian singer * Nandita Adhiya, Indian cricketer * Nandita Behera, Indian classical dancer * Nandita Berry, (born 1968), Indian American attorney * Na ...

# "''Readina''" by Hemanth # "''Shocku Shocku''" by

Malgudi Subha Malgudi Subha (born 17 October 1965; also spelled as Malgadi Shuba) is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. In a career spanning two decades, she sang more than 3000 songs. She began ...

References

External links

''Deccan Herald'' review
2004 films Indian action films 2004 action films 2000s Kannada-language films {{2000s-Kannada-film-stub