Kantara Movie Review & Rating: The movie is able to create a fairytale effect that often shocks the audience with its scattered three seasons.
Kantara Kannada Movie Review & Rating: The new ‘Shetty’ trio in Kannada cinema are the biggest exponents of the ‘local is international’ cinematic conviction in contemporary Indian cinema. Aadimadhyantham ‘Kanthara’, which is now in full swing in Indian theaters, is a successful one using that equation honestly. The director and protagonist of the film, Rishabh Shetty, brings a very local myth to a global audience with a very local production. Actor-director Rishabh Shetty, the mythical art form of exorcism is strongly marked through the film, as well as the cruel injustice of the land’s power deals. Cinema allows the audience to experience similar dimensions of a global subject from a very local place.
The Kantara story is told from three periods. From the 18th century to the last decade marks the gradual development of a folk tale. The film is often able to create a fairytale effect that shocks the audience by standing in three scattered periods. Rishabh Shetty’s direction, screenplay, acting, supporting cast including Kishore, Achyut Kumar, Vinod Budappa and Prakash Shetty, Arvind S Kashyap’s dreamlike cinematography and Ajneesh Lokanath’s music all play a major role in this.
The Sanskrit word Kantara means mysterious forest. The forest is clearly marked as an imaginary land. There is also a hint that it could be anywhere. The story and the issue raised by the film also have a universal character. The film accurately portrays the southern Karnataka / Kannada coast. Traces of a forest within Kundapura can be seen throughout the film. Like earlier films by Rishabh Shetty, Rakshit Shetty and Raj B Shetty, Kanthara depicts Mangalore and its suburbs. Their usual style of mixing myth with contemporary subject matter is repeated here. The soul of the film can be said to be the scenes that show the evolution of Raw Rustic as the hero.
Whether cinema has a ‘theatre experience’ is still a matter of debate. Even the future of the theater industry has been questioned in the post-corona OTT era. But Kantara is definitely a movie that completely demands that experience. Every scene, every performance, every music in the film demands a close theatrical view. And the film’s symbolic use of traditional art forms like bhutakola and yaksha song also calls for such a view. From the beginning to the end, this movie reminds us that the viewing experience is not a word that goes around just saying and writing.
Despite the film’s starkly beautiful production, what felt stone-cold were the objectified love scenes and some comic scenes. The acceptance of the ‘Shetty trio’ is also against such views in Kannada cinema.
The answer to the question whether cinema is art or craft is that it is an industry. That is where the art and craft of Kantara comes in and achieves huge commercial success. That is why Kantara marks one of the changing convictions of Kannada cinema.