I never saw 2022’s Kantara. But I do love a triple threat. Rishab Shetty wrote, directed, and acted in Kantara, getting a bunch of awards for his film. Kannada’s film industry is just like any other though. What you’re good at, people want more of the same. Chapter 1 sees the story deepen, at least saving a flashback for a whole feature film. Please, Indian filmmakers, stop with the flashback within your story concept for a while: it completely derails your main story’s momentum.
The legend of Chapter 1 takes place during the OG Kantara, telling a backstory. The story begins during the reign of the Kadamba dynasty. The king of Bangra grows greedy and enters the sacred forest for spices, angering guardian daivas, Panjurli and Guliga, who manifest and kill him. This keeps Bangra’s new leaders Rajashekara (Jayaram), his son Kulashekara (Gulshan Devaiah), and daughter Kanakavathi (Rukmini Vasanth) and the seaport village out of the forest. Inside the forest protecting inquisitive ambitious Bangra explorers is Kantara village, enforced by Berme (Rishab Shetty) and his loyal followers Sankappa (Deepak Rai Panaje) and Bhogendra (Pramod Shetty). That peace, as you might expect, is about to go out the window.
Shetty’s storytelling here is clear and relatively easy to follow for a long time. The 20ish minute prologue sets up the story, and lays the groundwork pretty efficiently. We then get the dueling tales of the conflicting groups, compelling for different reasons. Bangra’s leadership is not as united as first appears: Rajashekara has ceded control to Kulashekara, whose entitled upbringing leads him to brash and foolish decisions. Meanwhile Kankavathi is out among the people, but also meaning she deals with Berme a lot, maybe leading to a star crossed romance, which doesn’t exactly sit right with Rajashekara either. For Kantara, Berme’s confidence is his greatest strength and weakness. He’s unafraid to push into Bangra’s ports to trade and bring riches to his people. But that also means he gets too cocksure about going deeper into his own enchanted forest, brushing up against the forbidden scary practices of the Kadapa people. Shetty the writer also hides a great third act pivot in there where the movie should have stopped and teased a sequel.
Helping the story is the no expense spared $15 million budget. We get large action sequences with hundreds of extras. The opening sequence is incredible: a catapult/tank like contraption rolling through a mountainous village with the Kantara defenders flying through the air jumping on and off it to keep the Bangra people at bay. There’s a dark red fire battle that really drives home the cruelty on display during that battle. Shetty’s possession sequences he used in the 2022 movie are utilized when Chapter 1 needs to amp up: his “WHOAAAAA” bellows and bulging eyeballs really channeling excitement and fear in equal measure for his adversaries and the audience alike. The movie falls into a CGI supernatural story dump in the third act that derails it, but not before the goodwill the movie earns with its well conceived action entertainment, though maybe take the volume down 100 notches AMC I watched it in.
So beware, booms of Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1 might give you a massive migraine. Be prepared with ear plugs if necessary, but then maybe you’ll enjoy the mostly successful sequel of a great film that probably didn’t need to exist. And again, let’s keep those flashbacks and instead just make them sequels please? Rishab Shetty gets it, so hopefully can the rest of India’s great filmmakers!