Plot Summary – A period drama set in the 1970s, KGF follows the story of a fierce rebel who rises against the brutal oppression in Kolar Gold Fields and becomes the symbol of hope to legions of downtrodden people.

Language – Kannada

★★★★ 

Watched on 28 Mar, 2021

While this is nowhere on the level of the artistic heights Kannada cinema has reached in the last 8 years, a lot of that artistic growth helped put faith in the industry to make something this commercially appealing and while this feels like it’s perfectly manufactured by an AI for maximum mainstream appeal, what’s wrong with that? It worked. It’s the highest-grossing Kannada film of all time. Sandalwood has matched the rest of the country in terms of artistic expression with masterpieces like Lucia, Ulidavaru Kandanthe, RangiTaranaga and Godhi Banna but never commercially. This made Sandalwood sit with the big boys as it made people curious enough to check out our hidden gems as well. And technically, this is still a very sound film in all aspects. What doesn’t it have to the absolute maximum? Each song feels like a powerful anthem and I can’t imagine the feeling it must have embodied in a theatre full of people. Each action scene is so over the top and filled to the brim with the most excess possible and yet you never get bored or overwhelmed. It’s long but it’s entertaining for the entire duration. My only flaw with the film is that ironically Yash’s Rocky doesn’t have any flaws or nuances. Yes, he’s quirky and has a lot of ego but these things never get in the way of his invincibility. This ultimately makes for a less than compelling protagonist. Yes, we get his backstory and the mother scenes are very touching but this doesn’t hinder him in any way throughout the film. There’s also A LOT of exposition scenes and while films like Drishyam 2 handled exposition brilliantly, in KGF it feels a bit too much and convoluted. But in the end, nobody is watching this to analyze the technical aspects of filmmaking. This achieves everything it needed to in 7th gear and for that itself I feel like everyone should watch this for a crazy wonderful time. I really hope I can catch Chapter 2 in theatres before I go to the US!