Kantara — A One-of-a-Kind Cinematic Experience
An intriguing beginning, an unforgettable climax, and an engrossing movie in between
We were in Pune when I read about Kantara getting a 99% rating on BookMyShow.com, a new record. In the last year, I’ve been following movie ratings on this website and I’ve concluded that these ratings truly reflect people’s sentiments. In 2018, I watched Tumbbad alone in a cinema hall when I saw it had an 82% rating on the website. The high rating of 99% left me extremely curious about why everybody is going so crazy about this movie and I decided to watch this movie on the big screen at the earliest.
But we had to travel to Bangalore for a few days to set up the house before we finally shifted to that city. We reached Bangalore a few days later, on Saturday. After setting up our things that day and getting pest control done on Sunday morning, we left the house for a few hours and strolled in our neighborhood. We visited Meenakshi mall which was a ten minutes walk from our flat. I had already checked the timing of the movie Kantara — 12:35 pm, on the sleeper bus during the overnight journey to Bangalore on Friday. My wife also got interested in watching the movie after seeing my overwhelming interest in it and it was impossible to deny universally positive reviews for this movie. Moreover, it was finally out in Hindi that weekend and we had some free time on Sunday so we bought the tickets for the show in the mall. I was hesitant to take the seats in the 2nd row from the screen but my wife said it will be fine. She was right, the screen was at a comfortable distance so that didn’t dampen the movie experience.
Watching Hombale films appear at the beginning of the movie brought back memories of watching K.G.F and K.G.F 2 on the big screen. I was happy to see the traditional dance of the people of the forest at the beginning of the movie itself. I could recognize the makeup of the performer from the movie posters I’d seen. Neither of us had even watched the trailer of the movie before buying the tickets. By the time the initial 10 minutes of the movie ended, I was in a daze, wondering: what just happened!
Except for the bullock race and the flashes of the Devta to the main character Shiva, not much intrigued me in the movie. Yet the movie kept me hooked till the end due to excellence in all departments of filmmaking, especially visuals, background score, pacing, performances, and humor. All the fight scenes were good but since I read and heard everyone raving about the climax, I was wondering what had got people so excited and was eagerly waiting for that. And when that moment arrived, it took the movie into a different zone. By then I felt like I was part of the tribals who lived in that forest and so what happens at the end felt like I was experiencing it live as if I was standing there among those people and witnessing divinity take over the fight and end it. It was a surreal experience, enhanced by a powerful background score and song. What Rishab Shetty did in that scene was the best performance I’ve seen this year.
After the movie ended I understood the craze for this movie. That night my wife was watching some rom-com drama and I watched a few scenes with her while we had dinner. I got bored while watching it and wondered what if the Devta in the movie Kantara suddenly appeared in that show the way he did in the movie. That would shock the characters in the show and that would be entertaining to watch.
Overall it is a well-made movie that is engrossing and gives you a glimpse of the divinity, the way people perceive their Devtas. The dubbing in Hindi is done very well so you can go for the Hindi version. You’ll definitely not enjoy it on OTT so if you enjoy such mythological suspense drama with a deeper message then go for it. I will definitely watch the movie again on OTT because there’s a lot to be cherished in this unique movie that truly feels like an Indian movie.
