biography of movie kantara

Kantara Movie Story: Complete Movie Explained

Kantara movie story: scene by scene movie summary.

Page Contents

Kantara Movie Cast (Main Characters)

• Rishab Shetty : Kaadubettu Shiva / Shiva’s Father
• Kishore Kumar G .: Murali (Forest Officer)
• Achyuth Kumar : Devendra Suttooru (Village Landlord)
• Sapthami Gowda : Leela (Shiva’s Love Interest / Wife)
• Vinay Biddappa : The King
• Swaraj Shetty : Guruva (Shiva’s Cousin)

Kantara Movie Story Explained

Here is a detailed, scene-by-scene story summary of the 2022 Kannada movie Kantara :

The Discontented King

The year is 1847. A king (Vinay Biddappa) rules over a prosperous kingdom but is unhappy despite having everything. He decides to go on a spiritual journey to find true happiness.

The Sacred Stone

The king comes across a sacred stone in a forest inhabited by tribal people who worship Panjurli, their forest deity. He is drawn to the positive energy of the place.

Panjurli’s Warning

The king requests the villagers to donate him some forest land in exchange for helping develop their village. The villagers agree but Panjurli appears and warns that Guliga, a ferocious demigod, protects the forest, and harm will come to anyone trying to take the land.

Foretelling Prophecy

Years later in 1970, the king’s descendant plans to reclaim the forest land, ignoring Panjurli’s warning. During a ritual dance performance, the possessed dancer warns the king’s descendant of facing consequences but he doesn’t believe in the curse.

Clash of Beliefs

In the 1990s, forest officer Murali (Kishore) comes to convert the tribal village land into a reserve forest for conservation. The villagers oppose it, especially Shiva (Rishab Shetty), a rebellious youth and talented Kambala racer.

Bonds of Support

Shiva is supported by the village landlord Devendra (Achyuth Kumar), a descendant of the king. Shiva refuses to perform the ritual dance of his lineage due to past trauma. His cousin Guruva (Swaraj Shetty) performs it instead.

Turmoil and Injury

Forest officer Murali starts fencing the land despite resistance. During a protest, the police brutally lathi-charge and Leela (Sapthami Gowda), Shiva’s love interest, doesn’t resist while on duty as a guard. Shiva is heartbroken seeing Leela doing this and getting injured during the fight.

Conflict Unfolds

The rivalry between Shiva and Murali peaks. Shiva accidentally injures Murali while felling trees. Shiva escapes into hiding, avoiding arrest.

Refusal and Tragedy

When Shiva secretly returns, Devendra offers to bail him out in exchange for Guruva impersonating Panjurli and making the villagers surrender the land. Guruva refuses and Devendra kills him.

Revelation of Truth

Devendra incites Shiva against Murali, lying that Murali killed Guruva. Shiva sets out to kill Murali but his friend reveals the truth about Devendra’s misdeeds.

Showdown of Fates

Enraged Shiva rallies the villagers against Devendra and his goons. A fiery face-off happens where Shiva gets fatally wounded but a divine spirit possesses him, giving him superpowers.

Empowerment and Victory

Empowered Shiva annihilates Devendra and his men, avenging Guruva’s murder and saving the village land. Months later, Shiva performs the ritual dance once more before disappearing into the forest forever.

Legend of the Divine Saviour

In an epilogue, Shiva’s son asks about his father’s whereabouts and is told the legend of how Shiva embodied the forest deity to become a saviour, now eternally one with the divine spirit.

Kantara Movie Download Hindi (Link)

Frequently asked questions, q: what is the storyline of the movie kantara.

A: Kantara is set in a fictional village in coastal Karnataka and explores the lives of a tribal community. It revolves around a conflict between the villagers and an arrogant forest officer over land rights. Shiva, a rebel who leads the villagers, invokes the local deity to fight against injustice through ancient customs and traditions.

Q: Who are the main characters in Kantara?

A: The main characters are Shiva, played by Rishab Shetty, Leela, played by Sapthami Gowda, and Murali, played by Kishore. Shiva is a rebel who stands up for the villagers, Leela is a modern medicine student, and Murali is the forest officer who tries to take over the villagers’ land.

Q: What is the significance of the Kantara deity in the film?

A: The Kantara deity is a local demigod who is believed to be the protector of the villagers and the forest. Shiva invokes the deity through ritual dance and offerings and seeks its power to defeat Murali. The deity represents ancient traditions and beliefs of the tribal community.

Q: How does Shiva fight against Murali in the film?

A: Shiva initially tries to reason with Murali but when that fails, he invokes the Kantara deity through ritual dance and herbal concoctions. Imbued with the power of the deity, he can defeat Murali and his henchmen in combat and reclaim the villagers’ land rights. The conflict depicts the struggle between modernism and ancient traditions.

Q: What is the central message of Kantara?

A: At its core, Kantara highlights the importance of preserving folklore, and native cultures and standing up for one’s traditions and beliefs against oppression. It sends the message that greed and arrogance ultimately lose against the collective power of a united community protecting its ancestral rights.

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Aaradhana Chaurasia

Aaradhana C is an Entertainment writer and Pop culture enthusiast. With over 3+ years of experience, she has written extensively about Television, Movies, Music, and Celebrity News for various digital publications.

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Kantara: a cultural turning point for indian cinema.

As we speak, the cinegoers of India are in the midst of an intense experience for which they were not prepared. A movie, made in a language spoken by a fraction of the population, representing the traditions of few districts within that population, made with very few known faces – with very less collective experience, has captured the imagination of an entire nation. It is an imagination that is hardly supported in mainstream art and narrative. Yet, even to people who are forced to move away from that imagination, it is so familiar and deep within their consciousness that a single stroke from this movie has sprung a fountain of it. Here, we present a small summary of its artistic and cultural achievement – which is still in the making and process. The real impact can only be assessed when it has run its due course.

The First A chievement : With this movie, our traditions, our dEvatAs, and our sense of sacredness are back into mainstream cinema. We had lost them for a few decades even in the Kannada industry, while some other industries had moved away right from the beginning. With Kantara, we have brought them with a bang – right into the sanctum sanctorum of the Cinema – as an integral part of the plot, narration & essence of the piece, rather than being an also present element of the cinema. The Daiva is not just back but the Daiva itself is the cinema.

The Second A chievement : This reformation of the cinema contributes in both the substance and the form. With Kantara, we have regained independence from ‘Realism’ as the primary form of telling a story. We have, of course, had our ‘Nagins’ & Magadheera-s. But our non-realism cinema merely limited themselves to fantasy & entertainment. They were shy attempts. Kantara, though, is an unabashed foregrounding of the Indian form of storytelling and narrative. The Myth merges with the Real. The resulting Visual storytelling form is a universal one that is relevant to all kinds of stories – rather than a limited set called fantasy limited for entertainment. Kantara presents a form of storytelling where the Myth is not a separate genre. Rather it is another real experience one that elevates the mundane physical reality.

The T hird A chievement : Kantara has brought back the Deseeya – the folk - to the national centre-stage. It is a triumph of the Deseeya form. What Bahubali 1&2 were for the Margeeya - the Classical, Kantara is for the Deseeya - the Folk. Bahubali could have happened anywhere in Bharatavarsha at any point in time. But Kantara’s physical co-ordinates are marked to a few districts around coastal Karnataka. But there is an additional achievement. The Deseeya in the movie touches the Margeeya at its core & peak. Panjurli Daiva, Guliga, Folk Dance, Sanskrit & Classical Music are together. The Deseeya speaks the language of Margeeya ( Dharma ) seamlessly in the movie. This demonstration of the seamless co-existence of the two, one reaching the other at its peak, is another phenomenal achievement. Importantly, this is not done forcefully or ideologically or with a political intention that is apparent. It just comes out as the presentation of a matter of factly reality and without disturbing the artistic integrity of the movie.

The Fourth A chievement : In the last 300 years, India has seen many historical conflicts flowing through its time-line. The cycle of conflict-resolution-synthesis is in a mighty repetition. Kantara presents one such grand Civilizational/Cultural conflict going through a very simple story. The movie is about two conflicts

• A forest community and its clash with Modernity, the State and the dynamic of Progress/Development.
• A conflict within the forest community between Greed (Artha, Kama) and the Divinity (Dharma/Moksha) within the culture.

The achievement is in presenting this conflict, in its multifacetedness and complete cycle, through a very simple story. This is a typical genius of our Janapada form. All participants in this conflict go through a complex journey and a transformation. The emerging metaphors the movie captures are fascinating. The forest community hates the intervention of the State, represented by the forest officer. The forest officer duty-bound to perform certain duties is detests their obstruction. Both do not understand each other’s intentions and potentials. Rather, both see each others’ methods and performances as detrimental and having bad intentions. In addition, the forest officer is taught by Modernity to look down upon the traditions of the forest community - ideologically. Yet, the forest community is unable to see the evil within to which they have submitted themselves. It can only do so with support from the forest officer. The forest officer too progresses in his objective only with the support of the forest community. Yet, this whole process is set forth by the Daiva itself. It is the active invocation of the Daiva by the forest community and the eventual recognition of its power by the forest office that creates a resolution and the way forward - presented with cinematic brilliance in the last few scenes of the movie. That this complex narrative does not result in an ideological or political excess in the movie harming the aesthetic experience of the movie - is another additional achievement in this context. This is a grand criticism of both the Modern Secular State and a recognition of the traditional community’s necessity to move forward by engaging with Modernity.

Kantara is a simple Folk Story but an extraordinarily rich detail that will shame a modern anthropologist. It's amazing that so much detail can be packed into a single movie while using every detail to present a dimension of the story. This is indeed a literary & visual achievement. Explaining this in a minute detail will make a longer essay. The whole movie is shot within a few square kilometres. All innovation/investment is towards set making for every scene. It involves no foreign travel, no grand localing and unnecessary expenditure. There may be VFX and other technology. But it is so invisible and is not a selling point of the movie, in spite of ticking all boxes of a fantasy. This is such an emancipation for future makers. This is the right paradigm of creating a piece of art - technology must be subservient to art and culture.

From the making stand-point, Kantara shines in every department of the craft - Acting, Cinematography, Editing, Music, Script, Lyrics, Dance - literally everything. But the critical  difference lies in three elements

• The confidence to pick such a subject
• To have the right cultural vision and perspective
• To be able to craft that into a cinema and direct it to the last detail

That's the phenomenal achievement of Rishab Shetty. He has shown the potential of being a good artist in his previous movies. But, with Kantara, he has achieved that ‘‘hanumad-vikAsa हनुमदविकास’. He has leapt into the sky and reached another orbit of cinema.

The execution ticks many boxes of a well-made-movie. Every single character in the movie contributes to the whole in a unique way. Nobody is more/less important except the protagonist himself. The lead actress is not a property unlike in many movies. She has a distinct personality and plays a role in the transformation of the protagonist and the community. She goes through her own crisis in the process. Characters largely silent also make a difference to the movie. Their silences play a part in the larger narrative and cinematic experience the movie creates. All other prominent and minor roles are all well etched, of course. They undergo their own transformation in the due course of the movie. The movie is a definite triumph of characterisation.

Acting is just absolutely brilliant in the movie. Rishab deserves an extra dose of credit for having extracted such good performances from so many different characters even as he himself has essayed the role of his life. Sapthami Gowda is perfectly cast in her role presenting a quick journey from innocence to responsibility.  Protagonist’s brother Guruva depicts the Kola performer’s sense of sacredness in every appearance with almost no dialogues. Veteran actor Achyut Kumar deserves all the hate - such a Villain. Kishore, the police officer, personifies the blind arrogance of the Modern State. The young Manasi Sudhir stunningly essays the role of an aged mother who has seen all the rough sides of a tough life.

Once again Ajaneesh Lokanath impresses in the Music - both in songs and in the background. Ever since he erupted onto the silver screen through ‘uLidavaru kaMDaMte’ he has retained the ability to spring a surprise and present something unforgettable. The whole music is a great fusion of traditional, classical, folk and new modern instruments and style. This fusion itself is another significant feat of the movie. Two main songs are both brilliant. Throughout, every scene has an understated but culturally fitting music. Extraordinary orchestration of Kola, Folks Songs. The folk and the classical co-exist even in the movie subtly emphasizing the subject of the movie. It is no exaggeration to say that the music itself is another character in the movie.

After Direction, if there was one department with equal complexity it was Editing. A good script can be destroyed on the editing table. In Kantara, the editing department may have triumphed as much as the Script and Direction. It has resulted in the movie having multiple textures at once - at once a story, a visual, a documentary, a musical, action, fantasy. So much detail, so many forms, so many elements drawn from a rich life and culture. All scenes well knit into a brilliant overall movie. Finally, the movie looks like one monolith in spite of such diversity in scenes, rhythms and so on.

People in the language department too deserve a call-out. The language used in the Script, Dialogues, Lyrics - beautiful Kannada/Tulu from Coastal Karnataka with a Kundapura flavour I guess. The literature of the script is aesthetically brilliant. When an English word comes it plays a role to depict an aspect of the character/community. Otherwise, its a great mix of Tulu, Kannada, Sanskrit to depict the reality of the situation. It all looks like a single language. The acoustic experience of the movie is elevated by the sound of its language.

While the diversity challenge was high in Editing, I would still single out Cinematography for a special appreciation. For this movie with all its traditional, folk, forest, local detail, diverse elements, Divine experiences, the kind of action it has, innovative Cinematography was needed. Finally, it wins because it offers a Divine experience which is central to the subject of the movie. This is not achieved in isolation – It does so throughout.

Finally, if there is excellence in so many departments of a movie - it is the director who deserves a call-out. It is Rishab Shetty all the way. It's his Vision, Direction, Script and Acting. A performance of his life - with Shraddha & Sanskriti, of Authenticity, Devotion, Sense of Purpose. Metaphorically speaking, through this movie, he has truly fulfilled his Pitr Rna, Daiva Rna, Samaja Rna. He has brought back a civilizational fundamental into the centre-stage of cinema. The movie stands-out for two reasons - Excellence & Authenticity. The latter is a consequence of the lived experiences of Rishab (& his team). It has made a difference to his life and possibly a few others in the movie. They have made this movie first for themselves & then for the audience.

Thus, Kantara is a grand case for Business subservient to Culture.

The Cultural Importance of Kantara

While being a great piece of art, Kantara is very important for us culturally and civilizationally as well. It brings back a mighty confidence in the Local. It demonstrates that the local in India touches the universal - artistically and in business. The subject of the movie is both ‘Unity in Diversity’ & ‘Diversity in Unity’ at once. The former is bottom-up and the latter is top-down. We are a philosophy that actively seeks and drives diversity. We are a philosophy that recognizes diversity and weaves it into the whole.

The movie represents both phenomenon in its substance and form. In its business success, it represents the former. It shows that the Diversity never comes in the way of Unity. Across India people are watching it either in its dubbed form or in Kannada with subtitles - with appreciation. This brings back the confidence in the local - be Local in your substance. You can still be universal in relevance. Make a movie about a small corner of the universe without inferiority, atrocity but present its cultural essence, beauty & perspective. Kashi will love a story from Kundapura.

It completely alters the way of storytelling as we have seen the modern mainstream. The Story has elements from Fantasy, Puranas, Realism, Musical, Exaggeration, Visual, Folk & Classical. It is a phenomenal artistic achievement weaving into a form to tell a Contemporary Story with a sense of Past, Present and Future. This is how India always tells a story if one reads classical literature such as Kadambari of Banabhatta or Kathasaritsagara. That form of storytelling is now back. This results in the experience of Time as a seamless continuous flow. Thus the movie achieves another civilizational differential - the Saatatya - a unity of Time rather than isolating the past, present and future.

Kantara demonstrates in its subject and experience that Divinity is an integral part of our lives. Keeping Divinity away from our art forms we have impoverished our artistic products as well as our lives. In this aspect, Kantara is one big leap in the grand journey of Decolonization - without using that word - a nudge for us to use our own Lenses. This needs no special explanation if one has gone through the last 20 minutes of the movie. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a cinematic first for India. Rishab becomes the character he portrays. The audience lose their sense of separation from the cinema, the forest community, the story and the very Time. This is typically achieved in our Janapada art forms. But it is an absolute rarity in cinema. It is an absolute first experience of Transcendence in a modern art form - attested by nearly everybody in some form or the other. This is without a parallel. Its Divinity & Transcendence without exaggeration. It performs cathartic correction in your mind and creates a beautiful silence. Most people have reported that the audiences simply leave the theater quietly not wanting to disturb their silences - for that is too rare an artistic experience in our times.

Kantara is just that one thing that I have longed for forever in a movie without being aware of it. Hopefully, this cathartic correction, takes our cinema, art in a different direction and flows into other aspects of our civilizational spaces.

Feature Image Credit: cinemaexpress.com

The T hird A chievement : Kantara has brought back the Deseeya – the folk – to the national centre-stage. It is a triumph of the Deseeya form. What Bahubali 1&2 were for the Margeeya – the Classical, Kantara is for the Deseeya – the Folk. Bahubali could have happened anywhere in Bharatavarsha at any point in time. But Kantara’s physical co-ordinates are marked to a few districts around coastal Karnataka. But there is an additional achievement. The Deseeya in the movie touches the Margeeya at its core & peak. Panjurli Daiva, Guliga, Folk Dance, Sanskrit & Classical Music are together. The Deseeya speaks the language of Margeeya ( Dharma ) seamlessly in the movie. This demonstration of the seamless co-existence of the two, one reaching the other at its peak, is another phenomenal achievement. Importantly, this is not done forcefully or ideologically or with a political intention that is apparent. It just comes out as the presentation of a matter of factly reality and without disturbing the artistic integrity of the movie.

The achievement is in presenting this conflict, in its multifacetedness and complete cycle, through a very simple story. This is a typical genius of our Janapada form. All participants in this conflict go through a complex journey and a transformation. The emerging metaphors the movie captures are fascinating. The forest community hates the intervention of the State, represented by the forest officer. The forest officer duty-bound to perform certain duties is detests their obstruction. Both do not understand each other’s intentions and potentials. Rather, both see each others’ methods and performances as detrimental and having bad intentions. In addition, the forest officer is taught by Modernity to look down upon the traditions of the forest community – ideologically. Yet, the forest community is unable to see the evil within to which they have submitted themselves. It can only do so with support from the forest officer. The forest officer too progresses in his objective only with the support of the forest community. Yet, this whole process is set forth by the Daiva itself. It is the active invocation of the Daiva by the forest community and the eventual recognition of its power by the forest office that creates a resolution and the way forward – presented with cinematic brilliance in the last few scenes of the movie. That this complex narrative does not result in an ideological or political excess in the movie harming the aesthetic experience of the movie – is another additional achievement in this context. This is a grand criticism of both the Modern Secular State and a recognition of the traditional community’s necessity to move forward by engaging with Modernity.

Kantara is a simple Folk Story but an extraordinarily rich detail that will shame a modern anthropologist. It’s amazing that so much detail can be packed into a single movie while using every detail to present a dimension of the story. This is indeed a literary & visual achievement. Explaining this in a minute detail will make a longer essay. The whole movie is shot within a few square kilometres. All innovation/investment is towards set making for every scene. It involves no foreign travel, no grand localing and unnecessary expenditure. There may be VFX and other technology. But it is so invisible and is not a selling point of the movie, in spite of ticking all boxes of a fantasy. This is such an emancipation for future makers. This is the right paradigm of creating a piece of art – technology must be subservient to art and culture.

From the making stand-point, Kantara shines in every department of the craft – Acting, Cinematography, Editing, Music, Script, Lyrics, Dance – literally everything. But the critical  difference lies in three elements

That’s the phenomenal achievement of Rishab Shetty. He has shown the potential of being a good artist in his previous movies. But, with Kantara, he has achieved that ‘‘hanumad-vikAsa हनुमदविकास’. He has leapt into the sky and reached another orbit of cinema.

Acting is just absolutely brilliant in the movie. Rishab deserves an extra dose of credit for having extracted such good performances from so many different characters even as he himself has essayed the role of his life. Sapthami Gowda is perfectly cast in her role presenting a quick journey from innocence to responsibility.  Protagonist’s brother Guruva depicts the Kola performer’s sense of sacredness in every appearance with almost no dialogues. Veteran actor Achyut Kumar deserves all the hate – such a Villain. Kishore, the police officer, personifies the blind arrogance of the Modern State. The young Manasi Sudhir stunningly essays the role of an aged mother who has seen all the rough sides of a tough life.

Once again Ajaneesh Lokanath impresses in the Music – both in songs and in the background. Ever since he erupted onto the silver screen through ‘uLidavaru kaMDaMte’ he has retained the ability to spring a surprise and present something unforgettable. The whole music is a great fusion of traditional, classical, folk and new modern instruments and style. This fusion itself is another significant feat of the movie. Two main songs are both brilliant. Throughout, every scene has an understated but culturally fitting music. Extraordinary orchestration of Kola, Folks Songs. The folk and the classical co-exist even in the movie subtly emphasizing the subject of the movie. It is no exaggeration to say that the music itself is another character in the movie.

After Direction, if there was one department with equal complexity it was Editing. A good script can be destroyed on the editing table. In Kantara, the editing department may have triumphed as much as the Script and Direction. It has resulted in the movie having multiple textures at once – at once a story, a visual, a documentary, a musical, action, fantasy. So much detail, so many forms, so many elements drawn from a rich life and culture. All scenes well knit into a brilliant overall movie. Finally, the movie looks like one monolith in spite of such diversity in scenes, rhythms and so on.

People in the language department too deserve a call-out. The language used in the Script, Dialogues, Lyrics – beautiful Kannada/Tulu from Coastal Karnataka with a Kundapura flavour I guess. The literature of the script is aesthetically brilliant. When an English word comes it plays a role to depict an aspect of the character/community. Otherwise, its a great mix of Tulu, Kannada, Sanskrit to depict the reality of the situation. It all looks like a single language. The acoustic experience of the movie is elevated by the sound of its language.

Finally, if there is excellence in so many departments of a movie – it is the director who deserves a call-out. It is Rishab Shetty all the way. It’s his Vision, Direction, Script and Acting. A performance of his life – with Shraddha & Sanskriti, of Authenticity, Devotion, Sense of Purpose. Metaphorically speaking, through this movie, he has truly fulfilled his Pitr Rna, Daiva Rna, Samaja Rna. He has brought back a civilizational fundamental into the centre-stage of cinema. The movie stands-out for two reasons – Excellence & Authenticity. The latter is a consequence of the lived experiences of Rishab (& his team). It has made a difference to his life and possibly a few others in the movie. They have made this movie first for themselves & then for the audience.

While being a great piece of art, Kantara is very important for us culturally and civilizationally as well. It brings back a mighty confidence in the Local. It demonstrates that the local in India touches the universal – artistically and in business. The subject of the movie is both ‘Unity in Diversity’ & ‘Diversity in Unity’ at once. The former is bottom-up and the latter is top-down. We are a philosophy that actively seeks and drives diversity. We are a philosophy that recognizes diversity and weaves it into the whole.

The movie represents both phenomenon in its substance and form. In its business success, it represents the former. It shows that the Diversity never comes in the way of Unity. Across India people are watching it either in its dubbed form or in Kannada with subtitles – with appreciation. This brings back the confidence in the local – be Local in your substance. You can still be universal in relevance. Make a movie about a small corner of the universe without inferiority, atrocity but present its cultural essence, beauty & perspective. Kashi will love a story from Kundapura.

It completely alters the way of storytelling as we have seen the modern mainstream. The Story has elements from Fantasy, Puranas, Realism, Musical, Exaggeration, Visual, Folk & Classical. It is a phenomenal artistic achievement weaving into a form to tell a Contemporary Story with a sense of Past, Present and Future. This is how India always tells a story if one reads classical literature such as Kadambari of Banabhatta or Kathasaritsagara. That form of storytelling is now back. This results in the experience of Time as a seamless continuous flow. Thus the movie achieves another civilizational differential – the Saatatya – a unity of Time rather than isolating the past, present and future.

Kantara demonstrates in its subject and experience that Divinity is an integral part of our lives. Keeping Divinity away from our art forms we have impoverished our artistic products as well as our lives. In this aspect, Kantara is one big leap in the grand journey of Decolonization – without using that word – a nudge for us to use our own Lenses. This needs no special explanation if one has gone through the last 20 minutes of the movie. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a cinematic first for India. Rishab becomes the character he portrays. The audience lose their sense of separation from the cinema, the forest community, the story and the very Time. This is typically achieved in our Janapada art forms. But it is an absolute rarity in cinema. It is an absolute first experience of Transcendence in a modern art form – attested by nearly everybody in some form or the other. This is without a parallel. Its Divinity & Transcendence without exaggeration. It performs cathartic correction in your mind and creates a beautiful silence. Most people have reported that the audiences simply leave the theater quietly not wanting to disturb their silences – for that is too rare an artistic experience in our times.

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Shivakumar G V is 'Director - INDICA (Guru-Saadhaka Sachiva). His responsibilities focus on INDICA’s critical mission to cultivate leadership. He guides initiatives to serve Gurus, Read more

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Kantara Review: Insanely Entertaining, Propelled By Rishab Shetty's Blindingly Good Star Turn

Kantara review: a heady blend of history, myth, folklore, high drama and stylishly choreographed action neatly wrapped in a form firmly rooted in the cultural milieu it has sprung from..

Cast: Rishab Shetty, Kishore, Achyuth Kumar, Sapthami Gowda

Director: Rishab Shetty

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

A visually sumptuous, instantly immersive spectacle mounted with extraordinary vim and vigour, writer-director-actor Rishab Shetty's Kannada-language Kantara , now on nationwide release in Hindi and other languages, is a heady blend of history, myth, folklore, high drama and stylishly choreographed action neatly wrapped in a form firmly rooted in the cultural milieu it has sprung from.

Shetty is also the writer and lead actor of the film. As screenwriter, his output is probably just a touch shy of being perfect, but the script has enough heft and vibrancy to translate into a mass entertainer that is visceral, rousing and unwaveringly riveting.

A wide array of things makes Kantara the incredible film that it is, but the most prominent of all are the on-screen performers led admirably well by Shetty. He packs a punch that sends us reeling and continues to reverberate long after the film has run its course.

The film kicks off at scorching pace. The introduction of a divine spirit that watches over the forest and a stirring Kambala buffalo race within the first 15 minutes or so of the film set the tone. Getting accustomed to the sensory overload takes a while. However, once the two-and-a-half-hour film's design - both visual and aural - reveals itself in all its splendour, everything falls into place and draws the audience into the spellbinding Kantara (literally, mystical forest) universe.

The potent drama focuses on the fraught power dynamics, social and divine, that have forever been at play in a coastal Karnataka village where a seemingly benign feudal lord wields unlimited, unquestioned authority over the people. He decides what is good for the villagers. The latter go along.

It isn't servility that underpins the relationship between the master and his serfs. The key is loyalty. It has been built over decades of what feels like benevolence but may not be what it appears to be. Also central to the plot of Kantara is a conflict that arises from threats posed to the rights of forest dwellers over the swathes of land that have been their home for centuries.

In the lead role, Shetty brings dizzying energy to bear upon his performance as the buffalo race champion Shiva, a fiery young rebel with a cause. The young man has to contend with demons of his own mind - recurring nightmares in which he sees visions of the reigning deity in a wrathful avatar drive him to the edge of despair and a constant need to give vent to his rising ire.

His impulsive response to provocations put him on a collision course with the powers that be and his own mother, Kamala (Manasi Sudhir). She frets in vain over his compulsive hunting of wild boars - an act that is linked to the unsettling dreams that repeatedly interrupt his sleep - and violent confrontations with the landlord's henchmen.

The actor-director creates an electrifying larger-than-life figure whose volatile ways shape the frisson that pulses through the film. The young man, perpetually on a short fuse, is foresworn to protecting the village from forces out to rob the indigenous population of access to their ancestral land. Friction between him and government officials erupts because the latter are loath to accept that the forest belongs to the villagers.

Kantara , a film of phenomenal sweep and power, delivers a blindingly brilliant climax and a build-up to it that send the film soaring to the sort heights that only truly great commercial films have ever attained. The cinematography by Arvind S. Kashyap and the musical score by B. Ajneesh Loknath are magnificent. They work in tandem to create an impactful, out of the ordinary movie experience.

As tensions peak in the village and the forest's demigod (ritualistically celebrated in the annual Bhoota Kola ceremony) lurks in the background and is always ready to strike, the nature and dimension of Shiva's fight become clear.

Shiva's biggest foe is an upright deputy forest range officer Muralidhar (Kishore) who will stop at nothing to ensure that the government's writ runs. The landlord Devendra Suttur (Achyuth Kumar), Shiva's master and benefactor, makes common cause with the feisty young man. But are the powerful arbiter's intentions above board?

The opening moments of Kantara provide some broad historical clues. In quick succession, the script details the context of the present conflict. In 1847, the King, at the bidding of the Panjurli (boar) demigod, hands over a large expanses of land to the tribal denizens of the forest and is in return assured of decades of peace and prosperity.

Many generations later, the King's successor, driven by greed and drunk on power, wants all the land to be restored to the royal family. The deity, infuriated at the violation of the long-standing covenant, metes out instantaneous punishment to the offender. In 1990, the year in which Kantara is set, a government officer arrives in the village with a brief to wrest control of the forest land under his charge.

Legends and myths prevalent in the area and beliefs flowing out the forest dwellers' collective memory constitute the narrative crux of the story. The film is marked by a deep sense of the unique ethos of the people it is about.

Shiva, a Bhoota Kola ritual performer, represents a hoary custom but has passed on the mantle to a cousin because he was witness to the disappearance of his father while he was in the guise of the demigod. The loss still haunts Shiva and spurs him on to fight for the protection of his cultural/spiritual moorings.

Shiva is a virile defender of his people and their animistic philosophy, but he isn't the conventional, insuperable Alpha male that films such as KGF, RRR and Pushpa have brought back to the Indian cinema mainstream and made a box-office killing in the bargain. Kantara resists the temptation and is none the worse for it.

The climactic good-versus-evil confrontation - it isn't an ordinary hero-vanquishes-villain construct, catapults Kantara to an exalted plane. It offsets the one drawback that dilutes the film's a bit. Such is Shiva's halo that the characters around him - his friends and his girlfriend Leela (Sapthami Gowda) - are not quite as vivid as the other technical and narrative elements of the film.

In the light of the sustained overall finesse, anything in this film that is less than totally unblemished will count only as a minor false stroke on an otherwise impeccably realised canvas. Kantara , propelled by Rishab Shetty's blindingly good star turn and impressive directorial skills, is an insanely entertaining film. An absolute must watch.

• Cast Rishab Shetty, Kishore, Achyuth Kumar, Sapthami Gowda
• Director Rishab Shetty

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Kantara Movie Review: Rishab Shetty delivers a compelling and rooted film

Rating: ( 4 / 5).

Conflicts between man and nature have always provided enough fodder for our filmmakers to dole out one film after the other. Rishab Shetty’s Kantara , though dealing with the same concept, strives to be original and wins at it by staying rooted and realistic. Even in his previous films, Ricky and Sa.Hi.Pra Shaale , Rishab expressed his flair for telling stories of the coastal belt of Karnataka. With Kantara , he further goes deep into the woods to talk about safeguarding forests even while delivering a compelling revenge-action drama with a blend of crime and divinity.

Kantara is set in a fictional village of Dakshina Kannada, and begins in the 18th century when a king exchanges a piece of land with his people and moves on to find peace and happiness. Centuries later, the same land becomes a threat to the tribals of that area., but they believe their demigods, doubling up as their guardians, protect the village. The story shifts to the 90s, and we see the face-off between villagers who dwell in the forests, and the forest officer who wants to clear any encroachment in the area.

Director: Rishab Shetty

Cast: Rishab Shetty, Sapthami Gowda, Kishore, Achyuth Kumar

Shiva (Rishab Shetty) lives a carefree life with his friends, and is often at loggerheads with forest officer Murali (Kishore), who just wants to uphold the law of the land. We also have a politician Devendra Suttur (Achyuth Kumar), whose misdeeds become his identity. But there is a bigger evil at work, and Kantara is about Shiva’s struggle to bring justice to the people of the village. The film ends with an outstanding climax, which is definitely the USP of Kantara . There are multiple viewpoints in Kantara , and it is all wonderfully brought together by Rishab, who has written and directed the film too.

Rishab is only getting better with each film, and the backing of Hombale Films has allowed the filmmaker to make the movie more realistic. Even though it runs on the familiar territory of human-nature conflict, the chapters of Bhoota kola and Kambala make it unique. Every frame of the film is beautiful. DOP Aravind Kashyap lights up Kantara in vivid shades, and with able support from art director Dharani Gange Putra, gives Kantara a rather natural look.

Kantara also explores some serious issues like caste discrimination. While there is no separate comedy track, there are enough quirks in some of the characters to add to the fun quotient. The film brings in crisp narration, and extra credit should be given to the well-orchestrated action sequences. Composer Ajaneesh Loknath is marvellous in Kantara . While his folk melodies are soothing, the background score accentuates the narrative of Kantara .

Rishab, the actor, is outstanding as Shiva, and breathes life into this rather unconventional character. He has undergone a mass and intense transformation for the role, and the effects are evident. Rishab’s performance in the nail-biting climax will definitely make the audience cheer and applaud for him. Sapthami Gowda as forest guard Leela, who is also Shiva’s love interest, delivers a decent performance in Kantara . Kishore and Achyuth too give powerful performances, and it is a joy to watch the former’s intense ego clashes with Shiva. Manasi Sudhir, Pramod Shetty and Prakash Thuminad too are decent with their acts.

With Kantara , Rishab once again creates magic, both as a director and an actor, and delivers an entertainer with a strong social message, and an even stronger final act.  

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‘Kantara’ movie review: Rishab Shetty bats for folklore and native culture in his latest

Actor-director rishab shetty excels in his endeavour to raise pivotal issues that affect the tribal people.

September 30, 2022 06:48 pm | Updated 06:57 pm IST

A still from the movie

From a general glance at the Kannada movies in the last five years, it appears that the Shettys (Rishab Shetty, Rakshit Shetty and Raj B Shetty, better known as the ‘RRR’ of Coastalwood) are changing cinema to a certain extent, in terms of content rooted in native ethos.

Rishab Shetty (of  Ricky and Kirk Party  fame), strongly believes in his theory that cinema will be more universal, if its content is regional and trust is reposed in regionalism.

Kantara (Kannada)

Kantara  is a continuation of his engagement with regional content; he has once again experimented with the much-discussed issue of feudalism, environmental protection and forest land encroachment in general. In Kantara , he has turned his focus on folklore and the native cultures including Yakshagana, Paddana, Bhoota Kola, Daivaradhane, Naagaradhane and Kambala. The film also be viewed as a critique of the suffering of the native tribes, who have been subjected to unspeakable atrocities owing to caste hierarchy.

Set against the rural background of forest wealth smuggling, Rishab narrates a story of the belief system of generations in the coastal region and focuses on the sacred customs of the region with the powerful support of the native village nestled in the forest land. He succeeds in meticulously bringing a tale of myths, legends and superstition, and that too in his native dialect.

Kantara (which means forest in Sanskrit) is narrated through three timelines and deals with the issue of man vs nature, which is steeped in the culture and rituals followed in the coastal region. This deeply-rooted mystical drama opens in the 18 th  century showing a king handing over a piece of land to the native tribes in the coastal region. It briefly takes a break in the 70s to inform the audience how a descendant of the King tries to reclaim the land, and finally unveils the strategies of the next generation feudal lord (Achyuth Kumar) to regain the land from the tribal community.

When Shiva’s (Rishab Shetty) father, a Kola ritual performer also known as Bhoota , disappears mysteriously in the forest, after a fight with a feudal landlord who demanded the land to be given to the tribal community, he antagonises a DFO named Murali confusing him as their usurper. Trapped by the feudal lord, Shiva picks up fights with Murali, who thinks the former is a smuggler who uses native culture to loot the forest wealth.

His love interest Leela (Sapthami Gowda) joins the Forest Department as a forest guard and helps the department in surveying the government forest land. Shiva’s brother, Guvurva, who doesn’t want to support the feudal lord in grabbing land granted to the natives, gets killed. Shiva is forced to fight with Murali, when he is caught in this crossfire. Finally, both Shiva and Murali join hands to fight against the deep-rooted feudalism in coastal Karnataka.

But, it is cataclysmic that in his enthusiasm to showcase, native culture, Rishab glamourises native practices. Such attempts to please the audience through a commercial framework lead to the narration losing traction and issues get diluted.

However, Rishab excels as Shiva in his endeavour to raise issues, such as forest land encroachment and the attempts of the local lords to appropriate land that belongs to poor tribal people for development, in the guise of being benevolent.

Kishore, as a law-abiding forest officer whose heart is with the protection of the oppressed community, steals the show. He excels as a character who gets caught in a tussle between the system, politics and the problems of the people. Similar is the performance of Achyuth Kumar as a treacherous landlord.

The locations are colourful and vivid, and the background music by B. Ajaneesh Loknath represents the ethos of the land. Cinematographer Arvind S Kashyap’s meditative shots showcase the native culture and capture the rustic locales in their grandeur. The filming of the Kambala sequences (the annual buffalo race, held in coastal Karnataka and celebrated by the farming community) is testimony to his brilliant takes.

Kantara is currently running in theatres

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Kannada cinema / Indian cinema

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Kantara movie review: Rishab Shetty's mesmeric blend of action and mythology ranks among the best of Indian cinema

Kantara movie review: rishab shetty brings an original tale rooted in indian culture and mythology that surely ranks among the best efforts by an indian filmmaker in recent times..

By the time of the writing of this review, Kantara has earned endorsements from people far more accomplished in the world of cinema, with many more National Awards than this writer can ever hope to win. So I’ll admit I went into the theatre with a preconceived notion about the film, hoping for something good. But Kantara still blew me away. The beautiful amalgamation of action, thrill, faith, and mythology in this powerful film ranks among the best efforts by any Indian filmmaker in recent times. Also read: Kantara becomes highest-rated Indian film on IMDb, Dhanush calls it 'a must-watch'

A lot has been said about how Indian cinema is losing touch with its roots and not finding original stories from the heartland. This land, being so diverse and vast, is a treasure trove of stories. Kantara shows just what is possible when a good storyteller decides to tell an original tale rooted in the land and its culture, while bringing with himself the expertise and technical finesse of good filmmaking. At the heart of it, Kantara is the age-old story of man vs nature, of villagers vs zamindars, and the thirst for land and money. But it is so much more as it weaves elements from coastal Karnataka’s culture and mythology in the story so seamlessly and fluidly.

The story is set around a village in south Karnataka where a king had given that land to the villagers 150 years ago. In 1990, when the story is set, an upright forest officer (played by a brilliant Kishore) is trying to curb tree felling and hunting in that land, which is now a reserve forest. To complicate matters, the villagers believe that the land was given to them as a boon from their Daiva--the demigod protector of the forest, and are hence in no mood to listen to this outsider. Leading the charge against this is the village strongman Shiva (Rishab Shetty), and he is supported by the king’s descendant, the village’s sahib (Achyuth Kumar).

It is hard to pinpoint the one thing that makes Kantara tick. Let’s start with the script. It takes a story seen very often in our daily lives and introduces some unique local flavour, rooting it to Indian culture, making it stand out from among other such tales. Then comes the real cherry on top of this beautiful cake- the breathtakingly beautiful cinematography of Arvind Kashyap. The way Arvind’s lens has brought alive the folklore of Kantara is a lesson for storytellers. Some of the scenes of the buffalo racing in the beginning of the film deserve special praise, as do all the scenes from the festivities and visuals of the Daiva.

The background score and music from Ajaneesh Loknath complements the camera work totally. The choice to use western instruments in some scenes depicting Indian festivities was a bold one and it pays off quite well. The score brings out the myths, culture, and feel of the land where Kantara is set, taking you into the heart of the story so easily that you forget you are sitting in a movie theatre in another part of the country.

Rishab Shetty as Shiva delivers a powerful performance as this unstoppable force, who will go to any lengths to protect his village and his people. His beautifully-choreographed and slick action sequences would be at home even in the best of Hollywood films. Kishore is on the other spectrum as the calm, simmering forest officer Muralidhar, at loggerheads with Shiva. The actor brings so much intensity into his scenes that it’s a treat to watch.

This review would be incomplete without the mention of how colourfully and glamorously the film portrays the local festivities and rituals. The colours are vivid, the sounds melodic, and the portrayal powerful. All the scenes involving the Daiva are compelling, and some even hair-raising. That guttural scream from the Daiva gives you goosebumps on more than one occasion. Without spoiling anything, I can just say that the climax, while being a completely masala Indian film offering, elevates the film to another level.

Like Sohum Shah’s Tumbbad some four years ago, Kantara is proof that the earthy, rooted folk tales from India have the power to be turned into compelling cinema. Kantara, in fact, takes Tumbbad’s legacy even forward. Despite being appreciated by everyone who watched it. Tumbbad made only ₹ 13 crore at the box office. Kantara, meanwhile, is hurtling towards the 100-crore mark. It is an important film because it’s success will determine if other filmmakers across India will dare to tell original stories.

Director: Rishab Shetty

Cast: Rishab Shetty, Kishore, Achyuth Kumar, Sapthami Gowda, Pramod Shetty, and Manasi Sudhir.

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Kantara ending explained — what really happened at the end of the drama thriller

How do you tell a truly Indian story? It’s a question that has baffled Indian filmmakers forever. In Kantara , directed, co-produced and starring Rishab Shetty, this question is answered emphatically. Such is the force of the film, its originality and its rootedness that there is rarely a false note. 

A still from the movie Kantara

But what happens to Shiva, the titular character in the movie Kantara played by Rishab Shetty at the end of the film? Is he dead or alive? Or, will he return back to save the forests from anyone who threatens it?

Let’s quickly recap the story and the symbolism of the film before breaking down that chaotic, gorgeous climax sequence. The film begins in 1947 when the local king grants land to the indigenous people of the village, hoping that their god, or rather Demi-god, Panjurli Daiva will bless him. All the stakeholders are happy until we fast forward to 1970 when the local landlord, the descendant of the same king, demands that he wants his land back. He makes this demand during the Bhoota Kola performance — a folklore performance where the deity possesses a chosen man from the village and dances to folk songs, blesses the village and reiterates the fact that the forest and its resources will always be protected by Panjurli. 

The landlord, for his part, rubbishes even the existence of the deity and believes that it’s the performer speaking and not the deity itself. He wants the land back - to which the deity says that his fate will be decided on the steps of a building. After making this prophecy, the Demi-god disappears into the forest into a circle of fire. And so, it happens. The landlord spits blood and dies on the steps of a court where he has gone to reclaim the land. 

The present context in which the film later unfolds is in the early 1990s. The new landlord seems to be friendly with the villagers. Shiva, played by Rishab Shetty, is a village favourite. He has been winning the annual Kambala, a traditional buffalo race. The villagers love him and the landlord is extra kind to him. However, the equilibrium of the forest village is disturbed when a new forest officer, Muralidhar, dismisses the customs of the villagers, challenges their right to forage forest resources and prevents them from making any noise in the forest during their festivals that might disturb the villagers. 

However, the real threat, as we discover, is again the landlord all this while. He’s been conspiring against the villagers to reclaim the land back, a fact soon discovered by Shiva. On his part, Shiva, a true metaphor for lord Shiva, keeps having strange visions of a wild boar with metallic teeth and seething eyes. He wakes up nearly every day with a nightmare. Throughout the film, the song “Varaha Roopak Daiva Va Rishtam” keeps playing in the background. Varaha, it turns out, is also a wild boar, one of the avatars of Vishnu. As things get heated and the real malice of the landlord surfaces, the village prepares itself for one final battle against the casteist landlord and his army of goons. In terms of armoury and muscle power, the villagers are no match to the landlord’s army. Women, children — the landlord’s men spare none. Even Shiva is choked and killed. 

Only to be resurrected again by the demi-god Panjurli, who possesses him, bestowing him with superhuman powers — in a moment that sent goosebumps to everyone in the cinema hall, the entire village heaves a sigh of relief and prays to their god who has possessed Shiva, praying for vengeance. It’s a ball of fury after that — Shiva, or rather god Panjurli through him, annihilates the landlord and his men, restoring the balance back. The cop, who appeared to be a villain in the first half, is now on the villager’s side. 

However, Shiva, now the new conduit for the demi-god, hears the shriek of his ancestor from the forest and merges with the forest — similarly dissolving into a circle of fire. His lover, now pregnant, becomes aware that Shiva might perhaps never return back unless there’s a threat to the forest once again from greedy landlords. Will he ever return? Not really. He has transcended the human form and is now purely in service to the forest deities. In one of the most stunning sequences, before dissolving into the forest, the demi-god takes everyone’s hands, including the cop’s, and places it on his chest, thus encouraging them to always work together, to be in harmony with the forest, and not overtaking one another to stake claim over something which only truly belongs to Panjurli Daiva. 

What could be a better, truly Indian way, of blending folklore with mythology , to show us that it is futile thinking on the part of us humans to believe that we can ever own nature?

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‘Kantara is a film that should be told to our future generation’

Whether as a director or as an actor, Rishab Shetty has always strived to step out of his comfort zone. The filmmaker, who spoke to CE ahead of the release of his upcoming directorial, Kantara, asserted that he is a person who does not believe in ‘Luck by Chance’, and rather enjoys going that extra mile, and giving his maximum effort while leaving the result to take its own course.

“There is no such thing as a comfort zone in life. A comfort zone is an addiction, it is not a necessity. Lately, I’ve realised that nothing has come easy to me. At one point, I started enjoying swimming against the tide,” says Rishab, who has once again explored themes of human-nature conflict through his film. Rishab’s inspiration to tell the story of Kantara came to him right in his hometown (Keradi) during the middle of the Covid lockdown. “It all happened during a conversation with a boy living in the village when he happened to share an incident about his father.

The conflict between the inhabitants and forest officers that took place in the ’90s caught my interest. The one-line grew out of that and then we developed the characters and story around that.” Even though the film is designed to evoke senses of mystique, thrill, and unpredictability, what captivates Rishab the most is the film’s emotional core.

“It is a film from our land, from our roots, stories that are heard through generations, untapped and deeply rooted to our culture,” says Rishab, who believes that the more regional a story, the more global it can get. He further adds that the film is for children as well. Kantara is a dandakathe (a legendary story), and my intention is that such stories should be passed down to the new generations.

The film makes for a commercial entertainer with action, comedy, romance, thriller elements, and more. Despite all that, the film still aims to give a better understanding of folklore, traditions, and culture. Produced by Vijay Kirangandur’s Hombale Films, Kantara consists of an ensemble cast that has Kishore, Sapthami Gowda, Prakash Thuminad, Pramod Shetty, and Achyuth Kumar in supporting roles. As a director, actor, and writer, Rishab Shetty effortlessly juggles a multitude of responsibilities, when asked about how he manages to do that, he replies, “I won’t be able to achieve anything if I think I can do all of this alone. I have a dedicated team of technicians and professionals who help execute my vision. I want to share the credit with all of them.”

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Kantara (2022): Movie Review & Ending, Explained

Rishabh Shetty’s Kantara is one of the latest box office successes that is creating quite some brouhaha within the cinema-goer fraternity. With a whopping 9.6 rating on IMDb , the film turns out to be a bigger hit than KGF 2- Hombale Films’ last release. Normally, I do not wrangle myself in the politics of film ratings- I give my two cents to people who are willing to trust my judgment and walk away. But today was different- I not only spent 2.5 hours in the theater questioning the morals of the film critics and giants like IMDb but also felt sorry about legendary films like Tumbbad that went unnoticed.

Kantara Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis: 

The old folklore of the Punjarli from the coastal part of Karnataka forms the heart of Kantara. As per the myth, Punjarli (a word derived from boar) is the local demigod who looks after the tribals for their well-being and prosperity. He is also joined by his brother Guligu in the task. To honor the deity, the locals celebrate an annual event ‘Kola’ which is led by a priest. After the rituals, the demigod briefly possesses the priest to address the problems of the tribals and answer their questions.

This story originates in the 1800s when the King of the land left his house and family in search of peace, prosperity, and happiness. After a long quest, he eventually finds a small village in the heart of the forest with the idol of the demigod Punjarli. That’s where his search ends. Naturally, he wishes for God to follow him back to his kingdom so he could lead a happy life. But there is a catch- he can only make that happen in exchange for large acres of forest land to the tribals (to which he agrees).

Fast forward 100 years (the 1970s) from when the king gave his word, a descendent zamindar comes back to the village to claim the land that was given by his ancestors. The villagers protest against it and warn him of the wrath of the demigod that has been protecting them but to no avail. The dispute escalates till the Punjarli had to interfere and curse the zamindar to a painful death. Soon after the malediction, the demigod runs off to a forest and disappears, leaving his very young son right after him. 

The film then jumps to 1990. It centers around Shiva (the old demigod’s son), who has grown up to become a good-for-nothing yet the very loved son of the village. He hunts boars, eats them, and fights. Since the disappearance of the demigod, another villager (Guruva) has taken up the role to perform the rituals. It is expected of Shiva to take up the role but his disinterest and his reckless attitude get the better of him. Rather, he prefers spending most of his time hunting boars, eating them, drinking, and fighting.

At this point, we are also presented with the conflict- there is a new forest officer (Murali) who has been transferred to the area to prevent encroachment and preserve the forest. Since the villagers have little knowledge of the new laws, they are clearly agitated and Shiva takes this enmity up with the officer on behalf of the villagers. Additionally, there is also the zamindar (current descendent)- Rammpa, who is still looking to claim his land back. Subsequently, the narrative segues into a story about vengeance, anger (lots of it), unfunny series of jokes, and unexplainable reactions. The end, my friends, is as you all already know by now.

What Went Wrong With the Narrative

Character development of the protagonist.

Indian cinema has a history of romanticizing bratty male protagonists. It’s one character we love to hate and then eventually love. I can count ten on my fingertips now- Rocky from KGF, Vijay Deverakonda in Arjun Reddy, Shahid Kapoor in Kabir Singh, Aditya Kapoor in Ishaqzaade….you get the drift. But Shiva from Kantara couldn’t be them because he could never evoke that sense of empathy in his audience.

Shiva was always vagrant, rude, or bullish. We were never aware of his inner warmth. Even his love affair was very crude; it wasn’t soft or had any sense of longing that people in love usually feel for their beloved. Although the film greatly deals with the man v. nature subject, and the romantic subplot was just on the side, that doesn’t warrant such a hurried progression of romance that hardly feels coherent.

Unlike other conventional heroes – he wasn’t fighting for a real cause. He was just fighting for momentary issues that would arise every now and again. That trivialized his role. That is probably why I, as an audience, never saw him as the ‘hero’ that the filmmakers have touted him to be.

Suggestive Harassment Scenes Between the Lead Characters

Now I think this is thin ice that I am treading over, and I might get a lot of backlash about this. But it just feels about time that I should say it out loud. We need to stop showing borderline harassment scenes under the pretext of romance. A country-wide audience watches it, including impressionable young boys. Pulling a dupatta off a woman, grabbing her arm to pull her closer, pulling her hair back to kiss her neck….IS NOT COOL. Especially if the woman is unsure (or is shying away). More so, if the relationship is new most times, women can’t say no, and they generally ‘go with the flow’ only to pay for therapy later. It’s time we did away with this trope. 

No Motive for Secondary Characters

Some characters are just created to mislead the audience- like Murali (the Forest Officer). He has undue resentment. You will want to ask, what’s the cause of all this anger? There is none. There are hints of his enormous ego that might clash with his work, but that isn’t enough. To target a person and then go after him needs a better motive. The audience feels all the more cheated at the end when he abruptly decides to make up and becomes a good samaritan. How? I ask. And why? What is the trigger? Again, there is no answer.

Another deceptive character is the minister’s differently-abled son. I ask what the reason for creating a complicated character is. In one scene, the minister narrates his ill-doings to his son just because he can’t understand. But that could have been a monologue or a thought-to-self sequence. In short, there are a lot of unjustified distractions in the film that doesn’t serve any purpose in the narrative.

Uneven Pace & Weak Climax

The film starts at a breakneck pace- the first 15 min probably impart most of the information and set the stage correctly. Several jovial segments follow it like Shiva goofing around, Murali being a mean police officer, Shiva’s mother berating him, etc. Post-interval sequences are monotonous and tedious. At one point, you get sick of Shiva yelling and shouting and will question yourself when the climax comes.

At last, when the climax does come, it is weak and uninteresting. Shiva has to avenge the death of his cousin and fight for the safety of his land. A very long sequence of Shiva resurrecting to life in the form of a demigod becomes a mockery because of the emanating sounds from his mouth. And when it all does end, you certainly won’t feel the ‘wow’ factor. Also, lately, we have gotten into the habit of open-ended stories. I suggest we refrain from just falling into the trap just because it’s a trend.

What Worked for Kantara

Having said that, the film also wasn’t without its good and had its fine redeeming moments. Movies shot in southern India have a quintessential rustic yet beautiful vibe, and Kantara is no different. It’s shot against drop-dead gorgeous scenery and boats of a scintillating color palette. The jungle, waterfalls, and village speak to the camera like living beings.

The filmmakers have also done a fantastic job shooting the action sequences- they are so well-rehearsed and choreographed that they look poetic. Kudos to the team for shooting each fight scene differently. This one sequence is shot from the POV of Shiva when he is high on substance. That is especially brilliant. The color correction and post-production also deserve special mention for painting those vivid images on the screen that almost looked real.

Kantara Movie Ending, Explained: 

Not a lot remains to be explained after all that commenting. But I will just go ahead and summarize for anyone who wishes to read further. Shiva was unaware of his purpose in life unless he was made to realize it. He always saw nightmares of the boar, which was a form of the demigod, which in turn was his father. Maybe his father was trying to communicate to him through his dreams so he could realize his actual purpose and take his place as the righteous demigod for the village.

But after Shiva died, he was resurrected only so he could fulfill the cause of his being. The ring of fire where the demigod vanishes for the first time is always a recurring theme in the film, trying to remind Shiva of his actual duties. After he realizes it and leads the ‘Kola’ customs, he runs away to the same ring of fire to meet his predecessor. Since the demigods are supposed to serve the villagers and keep them safe, their purpose in life ends there. Another problem will lead to the birth of another demigod, and so on. 

Hence, when Shiva reaches the ring of fire, he comes face to face with Punjarli (the God), which could possibly be his father. And they both disappear because they have fulfilled their cause… until next time. The very last scene also shows Shiva’s son listening to the story. Maybe the riveting success of the film nudges the filmmakers for a sequel. 

Related Article: Jallikattu [2019] Review: How Masculinity Is Rendered Fragile With Its Volatility

Kantara (2022) Movie Links: Letterboxd Kantara (2022) Movie Cast: Rishab Shetty, Sapthami Gowda, Kishore Kumar G., Achyuth Kumar, Pramod Shetty

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Kantara review: A fairy tale that is nothing short of brilliant

Easily one of the finest cinematic experiences in recent times from Sandalwood, writer, director, and actor Rishab Shetty delivers his best till date, both on and off the screen.

Published:Oct 10, 2022

A still from the movie Kantara. (Supplied)

Kantara leaves a mark on audience!

Kantara (Kannada)

• Cast: Rishab Shetty, Achyuth Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Sapthami Gowda, Pramod Shetty, Shine Shetty
• Director: Rishab Shetty
• Producer: Vijay Kiragandur
• Music: B Ajaneesh Loknath
• Running time: 2 hours 48 minutes
• Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi, and Revathy
• Director: Maneesh Sharma
• Producer: Aditya Chopra
• Music: Pritam Chakraborty
• Runtime: 2 hours 35 minutes

The Kannada movie Kantara kicks off with a king from the 18th century who has all the comforts of life but for peace and happiness. He sets out on a journey seeking fulfilment and soon stumbles upon a deity located inside a forest worshipped by the tribals.

Initially unwilling to accompany him, the supreme power makes a pact with the king — fulfilment if he donates some part of his land to the tribals who worship the God. But if he backtracks on his words, the God would take his peace back forever.

With the greed and selfishness of humans combined with cultural and traditional beliefs, Kantara is a brilliant piece of work stitched together perfectly in terms of making and on-screen performances.

Apart from the highlights of Dakshina Kannada culture — traditions such as daivaradhane , bhoota kola , and kambala (buffalo race) — it is the narration that captures the attention of the viewer right till the end.

The peace pact is unsettled when the king’s future generation eyes the vast land donated to the tribals.

This is when the deity returns with a vengeance. Shiva (Rishab Shetty), who witnesses his father in whom the deity had incarnated and took him away forever, grows on to become a vagabond. Thereafter, it is Shiva’s show all the way.

Achyuth Kumar plays a descendant of the king who is now a landlord. Another character, that of a forest officer, played by Kishore captures the man-nature conflict well.

The dual character of the landlord and how he meticulously plans to retain the land lost to the tribals sets the tempo of the tale.

The works of the art and cinematography departments complement each other to make it a visual treat. The best part of it all is the simplicity of characters that gives it a natural feel, which is unfortunately a big missing factor in recent commercial ventures.

It neither falls under the commercial nor the parallel films category and strikes a fine balance, with a good and clean storytelling experience.

Yes, there are a few drawbacks, but they hardly make a difference and do not spoil the overall effort.

In between, there are bits of romance, fights, and humour but the tale largely revolves around human greed and conflict with nature, along with a fine representation of culture and traditions.

One-man show

Apart from writing an effective script and then realising it perfectly on the screen, Rishab , who portrays Shiva, is undoubtedly the shining star of Kantara .

Rishab Shetty in Kantara (Facebook/Kantara)

He has excelled in his acting, showing remarkable versatility. What makes it memorable is that he has achieved it without the label of a star actor.

Be it the kambala or the daivaradhane sequences, Rishab leaves a lasting impression. Unlike KGF , made under the same banner — Hombale Films — Kantara came with no expectations but ends up as one of the best cinematic experiences in recent times in Kannada.

We can even say that it is easily one of the best Kannada films of all time.

The conflict

Not limited to mere romance or action, the movie focuses on the burgeoning conflict between humans and nature. The plot of a forest officer who is up in arms against tribals over encroaching forest land reflects the current real-life scenario.

While nature is one important aspect of the film, it also portrays the unique culture and traditions followed by the tribals and captures the rich history of the Tulunadu region.

Any good dish is a combination of proper ingredients and the perfect making process. For Kantara , the script, narration, and technical excellence are the ingredients. It combines this with power-packed performances for a well-made entertainer.

The film ends on a high note with a breathtaking sequence showing the fight for survival. Though the end is predictable, it nevertheless leaves a mark of its own.

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Kantara (2022)

Not Rated | Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller