Kantara Movie Review

Actor-Filmmaker Rishabh Shetty has delivered a slew of promising works, which have turned the Indian and International spotlights on the Kannada film industry. He is back wielding the megaphone and wearing the greasepaint with his latest outing titled ‘Kantara’. The movie, released a couple of weeks ago in the Kannada industry became an instant topic of appreciations. With its grand gold-struck result, the makers have dubbed the movie in various South Indian languages and Hindi with the same title. The movies based on the native touch with the pinch of fable-myth aspect have worked wonders with the audiences beyond the linguistic barriers and the boundaries. Kantara is the latest one to join the league.

It’s a fictional village and the year is somewhere too ancient to recollect, where we find a king getting a unique statue from the tribal villagers and in return gifts them a widespread land. Years later, the descendants of the King try to grab the land back, and it leads a relentless confrontation among them. But the ultimate twist arrives with the unexpected characters.

With the perfect characterizations, neat performances, and well-written plot and screenplay, Kantara absolutely delivers the right punch of excitement to the audiences. Rishabh as a performer steals the show with his multi-faceted appeal. In particular, his performance during the climax portions are commendable. Sapthami Gowda is seen glamorous in few scenes, and her portions don’t any additional value to the film. Maybe, these episodes were written keeping teens in mind that it could be a refreshing oasis amidst the gripping intensity of the tale. Achyuth Kumar scores brownie points with his portions, and he is a gem indeed. Kishore’s acting is natural, but the only disappointment is have someone dubbed for him in Tamil.

The musical score and the cinematography are the greatest highlights along with the perfect sound editing. The screenplay laced with twists and turns keeps surprising us, especially towards the climax. As on whole, Kantara is more like bedtime stories from grandma, and has been beautifully portrayed with the nativity essence and gripping narration.