Art & Action:
Writer, director, and lead actor Rishab Shetty’s Kantara demonstrates once again, what mainstream Hindi cinema is missing out on—stories that connect to the heart of India. After a successful run in cinemas it dropped on Amazon Prime.
Kantara is rooted in the culture and folklore of rural Karnataka, but has been able to connect with audiences all over the country because it is also a brilliantly shot (by Arvind S.Kashyap) spectacle.
According to folk beliefs, a king in search of peace, granted a tract of forest land to the people who worship the deity Panjurli or Bhoota. The king is told that he and his successors should keep their word, or face the wrath of Bhoota’s cohort, Guliga.
Centuries later, the tribals living on that land, take it for granted that it belongs to them, and have an annual tradition of a Bhoota Kola celebration, in which a Yakshagana performer dresses as the deity.
Shiva (Shetty), the son of the last Bhoota performer who disappeared into the forest, has no interest in donning the face paint and headgear of the deity; he has left that duty to his cousin. He is busy with buffalo racing, brawling, drinking, boar hunting with his group of rowdies and riling his mother (Manasi Sudhir).
Change reaches the idyllic paradise—the king’s descendant, Devendra (Achyut Kumar), pretends to be benevolent but eyes the now valuable land, while an aggressive forest official Muralidhar (Kishore Kumar G) claims the forest belongs to the government, and tried to evict the villagers as encroachers. Shiva’s girlfriend Leela (Sapthami Gowda), who has just got a job as a forest guard, is caught between her duties and her loyalty to the villagers.
Human greed results in violence, deaths on both sides of the divide and divine intervention in a vivid, magical climax.
Combining myth and folk tales with modern-day concerns of conservation and the rights of the forest-dwellers, Shetty has made that rare commercial film that tells a relevant story in a visually attractive form designed to attract audiences. Mainstream filmmakers are often accused of sacrificing substance for style, Shetty has deftly balanced both. Along with the cinematographer, the sound and production designer, plus the action director deserve to be applauded.
The film takes a little while to take off, but once it does, it quickly establishes the conflicts and shows how an ordinary man has it in him to become a hero, or even a demigod.
The sexism apparent in how Shiva treats Leela is a sore point in an otherwise watchable film.
(This piece first appeared in seniorstoday.in)
