Kantara Review - A Spiritually & Visually Splendid Demigod Tale Owned By Rishabh Shetty's Spine-Chilling Presentation

Rishabh Shetty's Kantara is making a lot of waves outside the Kannada border, and rightly so. Kannada cinema gave a loud and faulty mass entertainer like the KGF franchise and reached every corner of the nation, and to some extent, of the world. But how many moviegoers in India know that Sandalwood has made much better films? Let's keep others aside for a moment and take Rishabh Shetty's films, for instance. From Lucia (2013) to Ulidavaru Kandanthe (2014), Kirik Party (2016), Sarkari Hi Pra Shaale (2018), and Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana (2021). He has done so many quality films as an actor and director, but all we care about is KGF (outside Kannada market). That's unfortunate, but thankfully we have some sensible critics and movie buffs who make these unknown films famous. The quality of these films is way ahead of KGF, but the hype isn't. Well, this is the same case everywhere, be it any cinema industry across the globe. Let's just hope that this picture will change in our digital era so that filmmakers will be encouraged to make some really solid films. Kantara happens to be one of those films, and coincidentally, it came in the same year as RRR. Now what's the connection between these two films? I'll tell you soon.Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana was set in a crime world but used the local traditions and spiritual beliefs to present the same old crime-noir-tale in a new way. In the same way, Kantara attempts to be a socially important film by trying to be spiritually extra powerful. The film captures spiritual and superstitious essences in the simplest possible way, while the visually astonishing climax covers most of its flaws. We have had some recent films talking about the importance of animals and forests, but believe me, none of them had a spellbinding climax like Kantara. Had it not been for the spiritual phenomena in the climax scene, Kantara might have ended up way behind the line. One can even say that it is another version of RRR trying to be religiously powerful with a larger-than-life superfictional extravaganza.Kantara is set in a South Kannada village where demigods are believed to be the guardians and their energies encircle. The land has been protected by the demigods for years, but now modern civilization is there to hunt for development. Shiva (Rishab Shetty) belongs to the family of demigods, who performs Bhootha Kola in the village. His father did it until his death, and now his brother is carrying on the family tradition. Unable to get over his father's death, Shiva sees horrible visions regularly. A new forest officer, Murali (Kishore), takes charge of the village and starts a crossing battle with Shiva for protesting against redevelopment. Shiva gets support from the landlord (Achyuth Kumar), who is everyone's favourite. The entire narrative revolves around the land and what surprises it has for you can't be revealed here.Even though it's a predictable story, Kantara still manages to hold your attention with its rural set-up. The screenplay is messy from the start but thankfully reaches the destination on a strong note. While doing so, it fails to explain many things, including the intellectual social speeches at the end. Like I said, RRR and this film have some similarities, and the concrete writing is definitely one of them. RRR missed logical statistics, and Kantara is no different. In that film, you saw Ram Charan transforming into Lord Ram in the climax, while here you see Rishabh converting into a demigod. How? Please don't ask.It's not just about this spiritual sequence, but even many normal scenes lack logic. Rishab's fight scene with the FO was so childish. I mean, the guy literally beat 15-20 people and yet the officer didn't shoot. And when he did, he just left him helpless. Shiva too seemed helpless there, and did nothing. What logic was there? Even in the climax, you have our villain sitting on the chair, shooting men off while the entire village group is standing up against the gang of goons, just like we had the Avengers vs. Thanos army in Avengers Endgame. Don't ask me if the villain kills the hero. I mean, that's just too outdated.Now coming to the most amazing part of the film: the acting. Rishabh Shetty as Shiva will go down in memory lane as one of the greatest performances by any Kannada actor of his generation, and all thanks to the astonishing act in the last 10 minutes. He is just mind-blowing there. Kishore gave me a feel of The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) sometimes, but that only helped to improve my viewing experience. Sapthami Gowda's character looks so real and organic. Why don't we have such realistic heroines in every film? The romance was a little too much, unnecessarily, but loved chemistry with Rishabh in some scenes. The supporting cast is highly commendable, including Achyuth Kumar, Pramod Shetty, Manasi Sudhir, Shamol Guru, Prakash Thuminad and Swaraj Shetty.Kantara is quite a long film, and that's why it gets a little boring somewhere in the middle. The screenplay runs without any motive, and hence it hurts the repeat value of the film. If you ever feel like watching this film a second time, I am sure you will not watch the entire 150-minute film. You will just see the last 10 minutes and forget the rest of the 145 minutes. How good is that climax, though. Goosebumps! The music should have been better, especially with romantic songs. Oh gosh, how much I missed that Sojugada Sooju Malinge here.. Nevertheless, the background score satisfied my hunger.The cinematography is fantastic, but the editing could have been more crisp. Rishab Shetty has made a film that no Kannada villager will ever forget. The cultural and traditional values are kept too high by the director. Rangi Taranga had done it previously, but Kantara is a level up because of the importance of the issue it handles. Rarely do we see classes and masses both shouting in the cinema halls, and Kantara's conclusive part made that rare thing possible. Overall, a worthy flick with some amazing sequences for a modern Kannada cinema that sets the bar for other industries. indeed, recommended.