Actor-producer Jai Jagadish fails in his first attempt as a director. His directorial debut "Madana" belies all expectations.

The late director Puttanna Kanagal introduced Jagdish to the Kannada film industry.

But the first time director, who proudly calls himself Puttanna's disciple, has let down his mentor by making a shoddy film.

"Madana", based on Tamil film "Manmathan", lacks the racy sequences of the original, which starred Silambarasan, Jyothika, Mandira Bedi and Yana Gupta.

The narrative is a big yawn and the film moves at a snail's pace.

A few glimpses of Audithya's acting talent do not make up for the bad performances by the other members of the cast. New actress Sameeksha, who is from Mumbai, is a let down.

Yuvan Shankar Raja has lifted his own tunes for the songs from the original flick. Even the same background score has been used in some sequences.

"Madana" is the story of two look-alike brothers - Madana and Putta. While Madana's is passionate about music and wants to make it big by doing something extraordinary in the field, his brother Putta is an innocent not interested in anything. His elder brother forces him to join a college.

In the college Putta meets Vaishnavi (Saniya) and falls in love with her. But Vaishnavi, who has an affair with another young man, is not serious about him and leads him on just for time pass.

When Putta discovers the truth, he kills Vaishnavi and her lover in an act of rage.

It is followed by a series of murders in the city. Rich girls who ditch their boyfriends are raped and murdered. An honest police officer tries to catch the killer.

For the bored audience, however, there is no mystery in it.

The crude narration makes the tale even more tedious than this summary may make it sound.