Starring:

Abhinetri is a barely disguised biopic of late Sandalwood actress Kalpana. Though the disclaimer is prominently displayed at the beginning of the film, it is not difficult to identify many actors and film personalities -- both dead and alive. There is no reference to their names or identities, but if you know the personal and professional life of Kalpana, it is not difficult to make out who is who. And here is where the director fails. By not making it clear to every potential audience which character in the film was which in real life, the explosive stuff in hand is wasted.

The actor who introduces 'Nanda' (Pooja Gandhi in the film) to films is a womaniser who fails to bed her. The first director loses interest in the film the moment she refuses his overtures. The director she falls in love is married and in love with some other leading lady. A powerful actor scuttles her career when he hears her haughty self-importance vis-a-vis him. She finds a good man who gives her a less charming but financially stable career revival. But she blows up everything in life.

The career path of the central character is as good as the change in her personality. From a struggling wannabe to a superstar and the sudden crash, failed romance, accepting the reality and falling in love again... her personality also goes through an interesting transformation. But all the interesting things in the film are not presented in an understandable way by the director who turns Abhinetri into a documentation process. Pooja Gandhi should have shed some weight before accepting this heavy subject. As one of the 'directors' in the film tells her character, she should have let a professional dub for her.

As she repeats some of the famous scenes of Kalpana, there is no option but to compare the two. And there is no doubt who comes out better; it's the latter.

Makarand Deshpande perhaps did not know which actor he was playing. The good thing about the film are its colours. The colours of the old era are presented in digital shades in a visually appealing manner by cinematographer KS Chandrashekahar. Mano Murthy's melodies are apt for a film like this.