(an edited version of this review appeared in Tabla! 21-Oct-22 Page 12; screen grab at the end of the post)
One must say that Sandalwood, hitherto considered as the poor
cousin of Kolly- and Tollywood has grown up. Over the last few years some
notable movies such as U-Turn, RangiTaranga, Ulidavaru Kandanthe, and well, the
KGFs (yeah...) have caught the pan-Indian (!) imagination.
So, when the wife’s Bengaluru college WhatsApp group went
gaga over Kantara, we decided to check that out too. No better way to gain
some brownie points, you say? Absolutely!
Kantara was, as they say in Hindi, paisa vasool!
What do you get when you grind mythology, crime, folklore,
indigenous sport, caste exploitation and environment sustainability together?
You get, Kantara - The Mythical Forest.
Oh, I forgot a few other key ingredients: fantastic locales,
unobtrusive yet hard-hitting cinematography, distinct & original music, and
a fantastic climax picturisation.
Beneath all the veneer, Kantara is a revenge thriller. Villagers
in a remote corner off Dakshina Karnataka (think pristine forests near Mangaluru)
live a carefree life bound by their traditions and associated superstitions.
They live off the forests surrounding them in a sustainable way. However, they
are troubled by two elements – one in the form of a Deputy Range Forest Officer
(DRFO) (played by a strict Kishore) who wants to establish the rules of the government and the
other in the form of high-caste land usurpers (a syrupy Achyuth Kumar). Hero Shiva (Rishab
Shetty) stands in between the baddies and a peaceful existence of the villagers.
Throw in the villagers’ belief in the local demigod Panjurli (a boar-shapedVaraha incarnation) and how Panjurli will save them from all troubles, you get
a heady concoction of a movie which ends with a predictable yet spectacular finale.
Three things stood out in Kantara.
Rishab scores 3-in-1
Rishab Shetty has poured his heart and soul into the movie.
To have given something from the Sandalwood cinemas to fight the gargantuan
PS-1 is a wonderful achievement. But this is not a token fight. The way Rishab
has scripted the story as a fabulous interweave of mythology, current day
politics and social exploitation, revenge, and rural sports augurs well for
Kannada cinema.
Yes, the lines were quite raw – the only beings that don’t
cuss in the movie are the buffaloes; the love-angle was contrived; the DRFO’s
character swings like a yo-yo; you can predict the flow of incidents easily; But
those are not deterrents, as one was able to sit and enjoy the 135 minutes of
Kantara without checking the phone! Success, indeed!
In front of the camera, Rishab brings the right amount of nativity in his portrayal of a happy-go-lucky youth, who is ready to pick up fights and is troubled by visions of his priest-father vanishing when he was young. He ably treads the line between naivete and indifference – especially in the caste discrimination scenes.
Hero-centric movies thrive on making the ‘transformation’ scene of the hero memorable (Remember the ultimate Baasha, the exotic Viswaroopam/Salangai Oli, the 'therikka vidalaama' Vedalam et al.? Okay, fans of other heroes can open the can of worms!) Here Shiva’s transformation in the end was expected all right, but the depiction was top class and therefore will be talked about for some time.
Colourful Music
Ajaneesh Loknath has scored a fantastic mix of traditional
(Kundapura folklore), classic (Varaha Roopam; video below) and breath-taking background
music during the last 20 minutes heightening the excitement with an excellent
mix of modern and conventional.
Ajaneesh’s discography of about 25 films is not that huge. But if he continues to produce such seminal work, we will hear more about this young man.
Mesmeric Cinematography
I thought that Girish Gangadharan’s cinematography in the
Malayalam movie Jallikkattu is a tough act to follow. But Arvind Kashyap
has truly excelled himself here.
Firstly, capturing the entire essence of Bhoota Kola (Festival of Spirits), an annual celebration of local demigods in Dakshin Karnataka; then providing an immersive experience of the Kambala Buffalo race, an annual rural sporting event where intrepid men race a pair of buffaloes in a slushy, water-filled field (check the video below on the making!); and rounding up with the resounding climax where a chaotic skirmish between hundreds of people ends in that primal dance-cum-punishment by the hero.
Whether it was the lighting – mostly natural, or the
movements through the forests, or the colours – vivid and yet gloomy reflecting
the mood of the film, Arvind was to the fore!
In all, Kantara was an enjoyable watch made poignant by the
focus that it brought on almost-forgotten traditions and culture, man’s avarice,
and exploitation of the poor through a masala pot-boiler.
Kantara? Can!!
#sriGINthoughts #reviews #Kannada
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