Until now, Kannada cinema was... a small sight. Various rumors were heard that films are made with a meager budget and reels are made with local mass stories. After crossing all of them, ``KGF'' stood today. It made the whole country look towards the Kannada border.
The contours of Kannada cinema changed with the arrival of KGF. The way they make and watch movies has changed. As part of that, new type of stories and movies are coming from Kannada Seema. ``Kantara'' is also such a movie. Now in Kannada without any expectations..
STORY
The story is very simple. A king of course. He has everything. Except for peace of mind. For that... he roams the entire kingdom exploring alone. Finally, in front of a small rock in a forest... his mind finds peace. The king asks the forest dwellers whether they will take that stone home. Instead, he takes Shila home on the condition that the forest should be left to the people.
A few generations pass like that. Descendants of the king now look upon that forest. They ask, ``Is this land ours? Should it belong to us?'' From then the real story begins. In the end.. we have to see on the screen who owns that forest.
Kantara means wild. This is the story that revolves around that forest. If we tell about this story in four pieces... ``Os inte kada.. What's in it?'' True. The director tells this story to a protagonist and convinces him. Because if told as a story, there is nothing in it. Such stories come to light only when the hero understands the director's vision.
Kantara's luck is that the director and protagonist of this movie is the same (Rishabh Shetty). Rishabh visualized this story while writing it. So... he could strongly believe this story. He added a Nativity to a simple story. The common people in the forest, their profession, the God they believed in, customs, affairs... He combined all these and gave it a commercial coating - he mesmerized in the last ten minutes.
The director told the entire story in the first ten minutes. There is a forest. This is the battle for that land.. He showed the whole story as if he peeled a banana and put it in his mouth so that everyone could understand. After that... the role of Siva (Rishabh Shetty) will enter. His character, heroism, stubbornness, and courage are all in two or three scenes for the audience. After that, don't worry about nativity. We will follow thinking that it is our story.
Mattivasana is always suffocating. It has no class, no mass. Everyone likes it. The forest.. the people who believe in it and live, their behavior.. these are called that beauty. There are some characters around the protagonist. The director used them as the main means of entertainment. Little things. Crowds gather in the theater.
The love story is also very natural. The director did not bring a white skinned girl as the heroine and apply soot for nativity. The heroine is like a girl who was born in Achanga Gudem and grew up there. Hence, we get connected with the performance of the heroine Saptami Gowda. The manner in which the character of Dora is portrayed is good. But the twist that comes through the character does not seem so new. Many people assume that. If not... the way it is revealed is good. Even if it's routine... even there comes a chise
In this story, the cleverly mixed aspect of the director is divinity. Hats off to the way they were used in the first ten minutes and the climactic scenes. The director has turned even a small scream into a character in this story. Whenever that scream comes, there is a chill in the audience.
A sudden apparition and a sound make the theater creepy. It is good to mix the Varaha avatar and the boar hunt. Part of the second half feels very routine. Stretching the story? Conjures up the feeling of But all that is just the lull before the climax
Because Rishabh Shetty performed a cosmic performance in the flagging scenes. It was a very long episode. In those ten minutes.. One man show. Rishabh just screamed. Visualization, sound designing, background music in those scenes.. all these displayed the best talent.
Until then, a kind of love is formed for ``Kantara''. With that scene.. ``Kantara'' gets mad. If the whole movie before that is one level... the last ten minutes is another level. If you want to know what a theatrical experience is... you have to watch this movie and the last ten minutes on the screen.
.The entire movie took place in the forest. Each frame appears green on the camera. The scenes shot in the forest at night reflect the talent of the cameraman. Technically, this movie is going to raise the level of Kannada cinema. Especially the sound designing gets high marks. A kind of scream is heard throughout the movie. Even after coming out of the theatre, that scream haunts me. The background music drives the story to a great extent. Rishabh gets high marks as a director. Because writing this story on paper is not enough. It should be visualized beforehand. If it doesn't. This kind of impact is not created on the audience in the theatre
This is the best role Rishabh Shetty has done in his career so far. Perhaps.. Rishabh Shetty's role of Shiva is being talked about a lot for years. Especially about the last ten minutes. Rishabh may win some awards with this movie. There are many variations in his character, as a wild man, as a rude man, as a son who is afraid of his mother. He cultivated all of them effectively. The heroine Saptami Gowda is very natural. There are no cinematic features in her acting. Kishore has done his role as a forest officer with blood. There is not a single famous actor in the hero friends gang. But one's face cannot be forgotten. Those characters barely register.
``Kantara'' is the biggest example of what kind of movies come out if the story, the technicians, the actors. It does not contain any material related to Telugu Nativity. There are no stars that we know of. However, this movie gets you into the story from the very first scene.