Rishab Shetty's Kantara: Chapter 1 Is All Sound & Little Fury

Kantara: Chapter 1 is a visual spectacle with some good performances, but the film suffers from its incohesive writing, simply because the scale takes over in the pursuit to become a pan-India legend.

Subha+J+Rao

Oct 02, 2025

Promo poster for Kantara: Chapter 1.

THERE'S A SCENE in Kantara (2022) where you know something is going to happen to Guruva, who is Shiva’s cousin. He’s the voice of God, he’s the good one. And, before that, you see flashes of who Guruva is. So when landlord Devendra travels with him, you instinctively know Guruva is going to be the sacrificial lamb. Despite that, when you saw it on screen, the tears flowed. Because, you cared. Because, by then, they’d told you who Guruva is. You know what the loss of that life meant.

Kantara was full of such moments, where characters became people in flesh and blood. The scene where the daiva embraces the do-gooders gives goosebumps even on a phone screen. And, recreating that is never easy. I was waiting for at least one such moment here.

Kantara was a movie. Kantara: Chapter 1 aspires to be a pan-India legend because of the kind of popularity the first film received. When you set out to better something, the first to suffer is the writing, simply because scale takes over. Unless you rein in everything else and get the foundation and scaffolding right. That does not happen here. So, Kantara: Chapter 1 is a visual spectacle, yes; it has some good performances, yes, but suffers from a lack of cohesive writing. Not a single joke really lands, and the lame attempt at humour in the epic climax leaves you cringing.

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The reason for this, I suspect, is also because you’ve seen the actors essaying these roles take on roles with gravitas in the past three years and rock them. To see them reduced to what they once were is difficult to digest. Be it Prakash Thumminadu, who plays an amorous soldier, much like the person he was in the first film, or Mime Ramdas, who plays a musician with exaggeration. After seeing the depth both are capable of, this is like picking low-hanging fruit.

Kantara: Chapter 1 directed by Rishab Shetty and starring him in the title role as Berme, spends an enormous amount of time in world-building, but none of that is really needed for the final payoff. None of the details you register adds nuance to the eventual showdown. The film really picks up pace post-interval. This is where Nature and the ganas, or celestial helpers of Lord Shiva, step up to help a child found in a well, who is now on a mission to help liberate people from enslavement.

There are kings and there is Kadamba King Rajashekara (Jayaram, in a well-written role), who does not wait for time before coronating his son, Kulasekhara (a lovely Gulshan Devaiah, who evidently had a good time playing a wastrel, weak king who speaks and acts before he thinks), while his daughter Kanakavathi (a luminous Rukmini Vasanth) handles the finances. Full credit to the team for writing a princess with depth. Those watching it the second time around will be able to enjoy the Easter eggs placed in the movie, especially in relation to this character.

The film really picks up pace once the showdown begins. Berme (Rishab has evidently worked very hard on the character) is righteous, and the person who has conversations — real and imaginary — with the ancestors of his clan. He is a leader who never seeks obedience. But when his help and that of his clan are disrespected and when the Kadambas, with the help of the Kadabas, try to enslave the daivas, he has to step in, going back to a primordial culture that celebrated Nature and also feared it. But, along with this, you also see some traditional Brahminical rituals, and wonder how that fits in this space.

The transformation scene when Berme becomes a Guliga lives up to the hype. Partly, because people have been waiting from the first minute of the film for something to take them to the same place Kantara did. There are only two paths the team could have taken after Kantara — try and better it, which is a tall ask, or go in the other direction and seek a new storyline that does not call for grandeur. This team chose to take route one, which is why it has also set itself up for comparison. Which would come in, however much you try to avoid it.

My issue with the film is in the writing and the music — the popular parts of which are drawn from the first film — including ‘Varaharoopam’, which saw the filmmakers go to court against Thaikkudam Bridge and win. The fresh score never really sits well, barring for ‘Brahmakalasha’, rendered by Abby V. However good your cinematography is (Arvind Kashyap), and sets are, they are all there to serve a story. Otherwise, they remain set pieces. The VFX works very well in some parts, but in some others, you question the logic behind it.

During interviews, Rishab spoke about what he wanted to showcase in Kantara: Chapter 1. That would have made for a fine film. But when big budgets enter the picture — a luxury Kantara did not have, thankfully — the team does have to think about recovery. And, safety. When you are forced to play safe in a space that calls for wild creativity, the end product suffers. Humour, mostly unnecessary, is brought in. That’s when you add a thoroughly silly gag line about an elderly person refusing to die in the middle of a critical scene.

There are talks of more films in this franchise in the pipeline. The audience, even a brainwashed one, will support a film with religious motifs only up to a point. They will seek something different, something concrete to take back, or something they feel for. I hope Rishab and the team of Kantara have that breathing space.

Because, never forget, before Kantara in 2018, Rishab directed Sarkari Hi. Pra. Shaale, Kasaragodu, Koduge: Ramanna Rai, which spoke about language politics, and Kirik Party, a college flick that launched many careers. And, he also produced Katha Sangama and Pedro, among others. I hope this big-budget, pan-India movie trend does not deprive us of that facet of a fine director.

When the end credits rolled during the premiere of Kantara in 2022, the auditorium in Mangaluru was charged. Tears rolled down eyes, some were too choked to speak. After Kantara: Chapter 1 the silence was telling. That silence is the difference between a well-written movie that organically made it big and one curated to win big.

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