Thursday, July 2, 2026

Kantara

Kantara (2022)

Runtime: 147 minutes

Directed by: Rishab Shetty

Starring: Shetty, Sapthami Gowdy, Kishore, Achyuth Kumar, Pramod Shetty

From: Hombale Films 

TIL, Indian demigods apparently loved going WOOAAAHHHH!

As I desire to have great variety this month, it was time to check out another film from India. As mentioned on several occasions by now, more than a few mutuals on Letterboxd are from that part of the world. This film-in the Kannada language-on Prime had a striking cover image plus the vague plot description did intrigue.

This tale was a little different in that part of the plot focused on folklore/mythology & demigods-yes, they constantly went WOOAAAHHHH! If that is part of lore, my apologies to those of South Asian descent. Hopefully you can understand why that’d be surprising to a dumb white guy like me. In any event, the residents of a rural village don’t want to leave due to the government’s plan to have the area become a national forest due to old lore that they are protected by a demigod. To greatly oversimplify the plot, a dude named Shiva and his pals wish to save the village despite the best efforts of some real heels, including a forest ranger.

This does have some hallmarks that could be stereotyped as being common in modern Indian cinema. Speed ramping, slow motion or sped-up footage, an unstoppable hero… it’s all here. At the same time, I had a lot of fun as the demigod angle did add extra flavor. The film was also shot quite well by star/director Rishab Shetty, featuring a propulsive score from B. Ajaneesh Loknath and wacky moments as LOG-FU during a great extended finale. The action beats did deliver.

Last year they made a prequel; one day-likely in the far-future-I’ll check it out.

No comments:

Post a Comment