| Mandala: The UFO Incident | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Ajay Sarpeshkar |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Story by | Ajay Sarpeshkar |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Manohar Joshi |
| Edited by | Ramisetty Pavan |
| Music by | Score: Jesse Clinton Song Raghu Dixit |
Production company | Ajay Sarpeshkar Films |
Release date |
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| Country | India |
| Language | Kannada |
Mandala: The UFO Incident (previously titled as Mysore Masala: The UFO Incident) is a 2023 Indian Kannada-language science fiction action film directed by Ajay Sarpeshkar. [2] [3] [4] The film stars Anant Nag, Prakash Belawadi, Kiran Srinivas, Sharmiela Mandre, and Samyukta Hornad with Mandeep Roy, Sudha Belawadi, Neenasam Ashwath and Kiran Naik in supporting roles. The film explores science fiction as a tangent to the Roswell incident, and in an Indian context touching upon heritage and its conservation. [5]
Being the final posthumous film of Mandeep Roy, the film was dedicated in his honour.
The film, initially titled Mysore Masala, was later renamed to Mandala. Anant Nag, the veteran actor of India known for his contributions to the Kannada film industry, was signed on to play a crucial role of an eccentric journalist. Prakash Belawadi plays the role of Dr. Satyaprakash, the head of a space research agency. Sharmiela Mandre, Samyukta Hornad and Kiran Srinivas play roles that are urban and savvy. Production management was handled by Cinematrix, a Bangalore based company headed by Pradeep Belawadi.
Post-production efforts were spread across multiple cities. Mumbai for sound design by Nithin Lukose, Los Angeles for music by Jesse Clinton, Singapore for visual effects by Oliver Elvis, supported by CG artefact design by Manojna Bellur and editing by 24Post studio.
The film had a presence at the ComicCon 2018 event at Bengaluru. At the event, the team mentioned having designed and built their own VFX elements such as a spaceship, rocket launch metrics, alien scripts, etc. for the film. [6]
The title of the film was changed to Mandala. This change was announced on all of the film's social media channels on Jan 9th 2022. The Director/Producer mentioned that the change reflected what the film had become. [7]
The soundtrack consists of a song composed by Raghu Dixit and a score by Jesse Clinton.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Neenillade" | Vasuki Vaibhav | Raghu Dixit | 5:44 |
| Total length: | 5:44 | |||
Harish Basavarajah of The Times of India rated the film 3/5 stars and concluded, "Although the climax of the movie is a bit confusing, it is a thriller and is worth watching". [9] Prathibha Joy of OTTplay rated the film 3.5/5 and wrote, "Give Mandala… a watch this week, just don’t go in expecting Hollywood level production quality and visuals. Ajay has tried his best and his best is not bad". [10] Shashiprasad S M of The South First gave the film the same rating and wrote, "Mandala: The UFO Incident is tailor-made for those who love sci-fi movies and that they love anything to do with extra-terrestrials — UFOs and aliens". [11]