Bhadra is the son of an Dollu kunitha Artist, who has taught his son to ensure he takes the legacy and tradition forward. Bhadra's Dollu Kunitha team consists of his friends who are planning to move to Bengaluru City in search of a better paid job in order to look after their families and build a better life for themselves. This leaves Bhadra alone in the village as all his friends move out, forcing him to face the reality, challenging him to save the art form he is so passionate about.
With a short runtime of 97mins, Dollu is a straightforward story sans any commercial elements as it resorts to the realistic narrative of people's fate once they immigrate to bigger city to earn, leaving behind their roots. Through Bhadra, be it with the ideological clash with his father or the clash with his own friends, the director succeeds in presenting a real life scenario. However, the film does lose it's pace and feels all too preachy with the final act getting handled on the surface level only.
For that climax to work just through a speech, needed a proper build up and a better character arc to the sister's role. Also, I wish Bhadra's family and their contribution to the art, should have been the main focus to establish his need to fight for the art as well as for his village. Lastly, there is a magic in those beats and I really wished the film explored that through their performances culminating in a climactic performance. Despite this, it is still an honest attempt and well performed film which needs to be seen.