Ulidavaru Kandanthe 2014

Set in the early 1990s along the coast of Malpe in Karnataka, the story unfolds in a place where the sea’s rhythm meets the town’s daily grind. The opening scene finds fishermen prepping their boats while singing a traditional folk tune, and a young lad stares out at the vast, inviting ocean. A young journalist, Regina Sheetal Shetty is chasing a story that refuses to be contained by a single viewpoint, insisting that multiple perspectives must be preserved to reveal the truth.

In a flashback, a boy named Richi [Rakshit Shetty] is running from the law after a murder. Regina remembers this moment from the backseat of a car, underscoring that the two were childhood friends. Regina’s investigation pushes her to question a spectrum of people connected to the events, each offering fragments of the larger, darker picture.

Chapter 1 introduces Shailesha, a local cashew nut merchant, who knows both Richi and his childhood friend Raghu. Raghu [Rishab Shetty] had fled to Bombay to work in a hotel and, later, with a local gang. Raghu’s return to Malpe sets off a crossfire of loyalties and secrets. Raghu confesses he cannot abandon Bombay yet, as he knows dangerous secrets about his employer. He plans to move to Dubai with his mother once enough money is gathered. To that end, Raghu steals a red bag that is crucial to a deal between Bombay and an interested party in the USA. He fights his way through gang henchmen and finds shelter in Malpe with Shailesha, who provides him a safe haven.

Chapter 2 shifts the focus to Dinesha [Pramod Shetty], a close ally of Richi who is held in a lock-up. Richi, a brash, flamboyant operative for the local gangster-turned-businessman Shankar Poojary [Dinesh Mangalore], has earned a notorious reputation. Poojary tasks Richi to locate Balu, an employee, to “teach him a lesson” without losing control of the situation. The Janmashtami festival fills the town as Richi and his crew descend on Jod raste. Balu, painted as a tiger for Pili-vesha, is knocked out and taken to the harbor. A detour leads Richi to Raghu, who has returned to town. The two men reveal a layered backstory: Richi and Raghu had once acted as armed associates who were after Raghu’s own target.

On entering Raghu’s home, Richi spins a set of invented tales—quoting a Cuban boy and a Mandva boy as metaphors for how a victim might fail to grasp the reason behind his beating. This storytelling doubles as a veiled threat to Raghu and as a device for the audience, keeping the violence shrouded in mystery. Richi discovers the red bag Raghu had stolen and urges Raghu to join him on a boat ride, though Raghu hesitates, remembering his mother’s dinner plans.

Chapter 3 centers on Raghu’s mother, Ratnakka [Tara], who sustains herself by selling fish after her husband’s death. Raghu tells her of his plan to move to Dubai with her after securing the necessary papers, and she heads to the market the next day, proudly sharing with her fellow fisherwomen that she will soon depart. That evening, Ratnakka prepares her signature Meen-saru dish and waits for Raghu’s arrival, only to be left waiting in disappointment as night falls.

Munna [Kishore], who has a tender spot for Balu’s sister who works at the fish market, also roams the market hoping to catch a glimpse of her. He works as a repairman on Poojary’s boats and, during a routine inspection of Richi’s previous boat, uncovers an empty shell casing—growing convinced that Balu was murdered by Richi. This revelation deepens the town’s suspicion and fuels Munna’s sense of injustice.

Chapter 4 finds Balu [Achyuth Kumar] in a fragile state when Regina approaches him for an interview. Balu has developed an odd aversion to crows and throws stones at them whenever one appears. On a fishing trip, he retrieves a heavy log from the net, only to discover it hides a priceless relic that shines like gold. He contemplates selling this treasure to a Bombay-based middleman, but the deal collapses when payment falters and the merchandise is discovered to be misplaced. As the Janmashtami festival approaches, Balu’s body bears the tiger paint of Pili-vesha and he performs along Jod raste. Richi and his gang knock him out and take him onto a fishing boat to force a confession. In a pivotal moment, Richi fires a shot at Raghu, revealing the long-buried truth of their intertwined past. During their childhood, Richi had committed a hot-blooded murder to protect Raghu, who then fled to Bombay, leaving Richi to bear the consequences.

Opening the red bag at last, it is revealed that it contains the merchandise Balu had been attempting to sell. Raghu is exposed as the Bombay-based middleman who intended to peddle the goods in Dubai to secure a future for himself and his mother. The revelation recontextualizes Raghu’s actions and Richi’s violence, painting their struggle as a tangled web of loyalty, betrayal, and survival.

Chapter 5 culminates as Richi returns to Malpe to celebrate with Poojary and the Tigers. Munna, convinced that Richi killed Balu, wounds him with a gunshot, only to have his own act of vengeance undone when Dinesha shoots Munna in the back. Richi dies, unaware of Munna’s motive but content in the knowledge that he has lived out his own grim tale. In the aftermath, it becomes clear that Regina’s investigation has peeled back multiple layers of the truth. She concludes that the deaths cannot be condensed into a single narrative and chooses to title the story as “as seen by others,” a meta-narrative that honors the fractured, multi-voiced reality she uncovered.

The tapestry of Malpe’s early-90s world—its boats, its families, its secrets, and its violence—unfolds with a patient, observational pace. Each character’s motive and memory intersects with the others, offering glimpses of why people behave the way they do and how a single act can ripple across a community. The film’s powerful architecture lies in its insistence on perspective: what one person calls a murder, another might call a consequence of circumstance; what one memory preserves, another discards. And through Regina’s careful, multi-angled narrative, the truth emerges not as a single verdict but as a mosaic of experiences, leaving the reader to weigh the shards and decide what really happened “as seen by others.”