Rishab Shetty is a visionary. He saw the future of Indian cinema when he created Kantara. The first film had many loose ends, as does its ‘prequel’ Kantara Chapter 1. What stands in good stead is the writer-director-actor’s unwavering belief in what he is doing.
The second film, which actually goes back in the remote past far removed from the first, is not born from a mercantile motivation. Shetty tells a story as he has a story to tell: we see his clarity of purpose and vision in the narrative progression, and also in the way he clasps confidently at the grammar of tribal mythology without burning out the cinematic potential of the plot.
Chapter 1 is far more culturally and cinematically assured than the first. There is a plushness at the heart of this fertile fable that irrigates the product, conferring it with a seductive emotional and visual heft. Although there are pacing problems in the narration-why must every other Indian film nowadays be closer in length to 3 hours than 2?-and the ‘comic relief’ is an intrusion beyond belief (why are South Indian films stuck in the laughter loop?) this film is comparatively more lush and luscious than the first.
Rishab Shetty has a tighter grip over the narrative than the first time. Some visuals, for example the entire loop where he undergoes several avatars in stunning succession right before our bewildered eyes, are so striking they seem to be at odds with the weaker interludes, all, not so coincidentally, situated in the first-half.
The narration takes its time to gather its wits. But the moment the seeds are sown and the film’s luscious landscape is ploughed, the narrative takes off like a breeze.
Rishab Shetty does well as an actor. His character Berme is both a liberal tribal and fierce protector of his ethnic roots. As a writer and director, Shetty is fiercely dedicated to obtaining the optimum energy in every action piece.
What I found particularly and emphatically gratifying is Shetty’s determination to make Kantara Chapter 1 an independent experience: one needn’t have seen the first Kantara film-although I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t-to savour the diverse cultural and visual flavours which assail our senses.
Oh yes, one more thing: this time the heroine’s space is not violated by those cheap shots from the first film. Rukmini Vasanth (the working class enchantress from Hemanth Rao’s Sapta Saagaradaache Ello) as the Princess Kanakavathi, who proves herself more capable of inheriting the throne than her jejune brother (Gulshan Devaiah, tasked with a thankless part) is actually the most dazzling component in this intriguing jigsaw puzzle.
Partly a mythological and partly a thriller, Kantara, Chapter 1 is a triumph of its creator’s unwavering vision. Rishab Shetty’s cinematic language is unique. Where he errs is in placing the punctuation marks in the narrative. Every chapter needn’t be closed with an exclamation mark.