KGF CHAPTER 1 (SPOILER FREE) REVIEW

I hate boiling movies down to formulas but still Gangs of Wasseypur + Scarface+ Mad Max + Spartacus + Deewar =

KGF (KOLAR GOLD FIELDS) : Chapter 1

Cast – Yash, Srinidhi Shetty, Achyuth Kumar and others

Director- Prashanth Neel

With a name like Ambarish, you hardly get a chance to share a name with a celebrity or even historical figure. (‘Amrish’ Puri doesn’t count for the simple reason that my name isn’t ‘Amrish’). While I am an ardent fan of Tamil and Telugu cinema, my only connection to Kannada cinema has been sharing my name with one of their renowned superstars. While I have gotten around to watching one or two Malayalam movies (not just the ones with the…ahem…’aunties’) at least I have some clue about Malayalam film stars and industry. I have somehow never gotten around to watching even a single Kannada movie, not even the dubbed ones on Set Max coz they just lack the punch of Tamil and Telugu movies. That’s not to say they don’t have talented film makers or actors (other than Sudeep, Girish Karnad and Ambareesh, I don’t know many) but the only Kannada movies I have heard of are remakes of Tamil/Telugu/Hindi movies. They somehow never seemed to do anything new or remarkable that would attract my attention like their other South Indian counterparts. UNTIL NOW.

The first time I saw the trailer for KGF chapter 1, the imagery stunned me. While the Scarface/Vijay from Deewar formula has been done to death in Indian cinema, it was the crazy Mad Max like depiction of the Kolar Gold Mines in the trailer that attracted me to it. Clearly taking inspiration from the success of multi-lingual epics like Bahubali and Robot 2.0, Prashanth Neel decided to make an epic 2 part film (at least I think its two parts) to be released in 5 languages. In an recent interview, Karan Johar had rightly said “Bahubali was a slap to our (Bollywood’s) faces”, in the sense that Bollywood was overlooking some really good storytelling potential in regional (particularly south Indian cinema). Not only are south filmmakers not afraid to tell bold ambitious stories but they also stick to their own style rather than aping Hollywood. The result is an original home-grown movie with maybe slightly melodramatic tones but having the confidence to stick to its own style- a bit like Anime or Kung Fu movies. While even I enjoy making fun of over-the-top acting and action sequences of some South Indian movies, I still would prefer watching them over any boring Hindi Rom-com any damn time.  Just like how Bengali movies have perfected the art of realism and tapping into never before seen emotions on screen or how Marathi movies have learned to tell entertaining complex stories with simplicity and no additional masala, South Indian mainstream cinema (sorry to bunch four distinct languages together for sake of brevity) has always never been shy of creating epic stories on the largest canvas imaginable. KGF is perhaps Kannada cinema's first leap in that direction.

The movie is the story of Raja a.k.a Rocky born to a single poor mother whose only inheritance to her son were making him realize that the world only makes sense if you force it to (BvS reference!). Through various flashbacks (though way too many than were necessary) we learn that it was her ruthless upbringing that makes Rocky the man that he is – Courageous, outrageous and wanting to win everything…by everything I mean EVERYTHING. After shifting to Mumbai in the 1970’s, he soon becomes entangled in a conspiracy that ultimately leads to India’s ‘El Dorado’ – The Gold mines in Kolar in Karnataka – whose discovery has its own power games and multiple players.

What the sets the movie apart is not the story but how it is portrayed on screen. The movie starts with the Prime Minister of India in 1981 named Ramika Sen signing the death warrant of Rocky. That immediately gives you an idea that realism is out of the fucking window and the movie is set in its own universe. And again I have zero complaints. Being a big fan of alternate history and comic book universes, I don’t mind a movie creating its own mythology. The story is narrated by a journalist in present day who had written a book about Rocky. Director Neel makes use of this device really well as it again adds an element of myth-making and poetry to it.

Plus the movie is just gorgeously shot, the mines being portrayed in de-saturated colors like a scene from any Zack Snyder movie. Particularly the climax is shot in a very Snyder-esque fashion. However, that is where the similarity to the great visionary ends. The action which should be the highlight of such a film is shot in the worst way possible – Shaky cam. This disease that inflected Hollywood from the Bourne movies has sadly made its way to India as well. It might suit a realistic, grounded movie but quite frankly frequent jump cuts and shaky camera during the action just makes the scene worthless in my opinion. That is why Marvel sucks at shooting good action scenes, in their 20 or so movies only 2-3 sequences are memorable. I am very particular about action scenes and their geography, speed and editing. While not all action scenes need to have time ramping like Snyder’s do, but even gritty ones like in The Raid movies (directed by Gareth Evans) have longer cuts and smart editing that give us a nice clean view of all the action thus making it more engaging. If I don’t see how many people are involved, where they are fighting or how they are getting hit then what’s the point of doing all those stunts if it’s just two seconds of dust flying and hearing someone’s bones crack. Sadly the action here disappoints a bit. 

However, the movie really makes up for that with the dialogue. I am not saying some of it isn’t cringe-worthy, but I just love cheesy dialogue…especially cheesy action punchlines. Seriously there is one scene here which feels like it’s almost from an classic Salim-Javed script from the 70’s. It’s this movie’s equivalent of “Main aaj bhi feke hue paise nahi uthata” and believe me if am comparing a modern day movie to the greatest script-writers in Bollywood then realize that it isn’t without actual merit. Seriously Rocky’s (Yash) whole arc is almost like the ‘Angry young Man’ character created by Salim-Javed (minus of course the Bacchan charisma and adding some south Indian melodrama). I am surprised I hadn’t even heard of Yash until this movie, he seriously does this role real justice. It’s not like an award winning performance and sometimes his character will appear the typical God-like hero in South movies, but God-damn does he commit to the role. There are also some subtle scenes where you see some inner-conflict which could have been highlighted more but sadly isn't. While the rest of the cast works well, they really didn’t leave a big impression upon me.

The second half suffers from a few pacing issues as just when you expect things to get really exciting, it drags a bit. There is a lot of exposition and the aforementioned jump cuts don’t allow for a bit of suspense building which would have hugely effective. There are also a lot many characters and unlike Gangs of Wasseypur where they were well written and allowed to be fleshed out through dialogue, here you have to make efforts to remember who’s who. However, there is an intriguing power play going on amongst them and I do hope they take things a bit slow in Chapter 2. When the pace was dying down, I somehow still had faith in the movie. I was like ‘ I know you can do better, just impress me with the climax' and the believe came off in the end. The climax does feel like it is earned. Particularly the visuals are freaking awesome and the background score is top notch. Otherwise, the music is okay-ish. The item number with Mouni Roy is hot and the rest of the songs are forgettable. However, the background score is intense throughout the movie and particularly towards the climax it is damn effective.

Just like other 2 part movies released in India (quite frankly I think we might have more two part movies than Hollywood- Rakta Charitra, Gangs of Wasseypur, Bahubali. While the only major Hollywood one I can remember is Kill Bill), the movie ends on irritatingly seducing literal cliffhanger with a major twist. Overall, in spite of the shaky cam action scenes and slight screenplay issues overall I really dig the tone of the movie and the mythology that they are trying to create. Director Prashanth Neel has really brought the Kannada movie industry in the limelight and I hope to see an epic conclusion to this grand story soon enough.

The movie is Total Timepass!!

Aquaman (spoiler free) movie review

“Does this movie fix the DC Cinematic Universe?”

“Is it broken?”

AQUAMAN

DIRECTOR- JAMES WAN

CAST- JASON MOMOA, AMBER HEARD, PATRICK WILSON, WILLIAM DAFOE, NICOLE KIDMAN AND THE SPLENDOR OF THE MOTHERFUCKING OCEAN!

When Jason Momoa was recently asked the above question in an interview, he gave that answer. It’s no secret now that people, quite a majority of them HATE DC movies for some reason. While a healthy rivalry between two great comic book universes has always been there, with the advent of social media its been getting ugly…just like every other discussion in life. This is what happens when every dimwit gets to speak his or her mind I guess. But even having a strong opinion about a movie or a piece of art is fine, lately I have seen the word ‘DC fan’ being used by many pages on the net as a slur.

It’s no secret that I am a comic book fan with a huge leaning towards DC. I love their stories, their cartoons and also their movies. But the reason being that not only does their content appeal to my taste for the deeper things in life, but that the Warner Bros (who owns cinema rights for all DC characters) was content in taking risks with a genre no one thought ever to take. They literally introduced the now oft-used concept of a gritty reboot by getting a then relatively unknown Christopher Nolan to direct Batman Begins, which subsequently led to comic book movies being finally taken seriously by all people and not just nerds. They gave a new director like Zack Snyder the chance to direct a very different adaptation of a comic book like 300 and also gave him the responsibility of adapting what was once thought to be a completely ‘unfilmable’ graphic novel in the form of Watchmen.  They also entrusted him with bringing to the big screen the oldest and most beloved superhero of all time- the Man of Steel. 

While Marvel at the other end, due to their financial troubles had sought out a strategy to make crowd pleasing successful formula movies one after the other (because if they had one failure the company would go bankrupt), they planned an interconnected universe the likes of which had never been seen on screen. While this offered them little room for telling stories with varying tones or intensity, their subsequent takeover by ‘family-friendly’ media giant Disney, finally led them to obey the formula of kid-friendly tones, joke per 10 minutes and in turn almost zero risk taking. This also resulted in Disney’s mighty media clout being at their disposal which turned the MCU into a worldwide household phenomenon (and made all the money that there is to make). But again, their movies were specifically designed to take almost zero risks and please the people in whatever way possible. This sadly, became the standard that all comic book movies (even the ones not concerned with the MCU like the X-men, had to live by). This became the rule. It’s like they made so many of them that most people who had never even touched a comic book in their life (and quite frankly are never likely to do so) suddenly became experts on how such stories are to be told.  Any movie that wasn’t following the ‘formula’ was cast out by the critics and the casual fans…like a leper. (Yes that’s a TDK reference).  Listening to their toxicity is almost like listening to hardcore Islamic preachers…there is no wiggle room…no room for debate…no room for acceptance.

WB/DC at the other hand wanted the sweet sweet ‘Avengers’ level money and while Zack Snyder originally never intended to develop a shared cinematic universe, (he had a 5 film superman solo arc in mind), the pressure from WB won and he had to introduce Batman and Wonder-woman and set up a few other characters in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. WB at that point still trusted its creators and although they did meddle a bit with the theatrically released version, Snyder’s vision (altered as it was) was still evident in the movie. Snyder and Chris Terrio envisioned a universe where the characters would eventually come together in an epic arc to fight with DC’s biggest villain Darkseid…where may be Superman would actually turn into a dictator at one point and the Flash would have to go back in time to reboot the universe. But BvS released and it was perhaps the most polarizing film in recent times. While by no means a bad film (I found it personally to be a masterpiece) with excellent music, awesome performances and great action, it received a lot of negative press because it didn’t confirm to the ‘formula’. Batman and Superman didn’t crack jokes while trying to murder each other (Oh you didn’t think super-powered beings did that? remember the airport scene in Civil War? Yeah it’s fairly common to crack jokes while trying to punch your colleague in the face) the movie didn’t have a straightforward villain who clearly laid out the plans, it dealt with the idea of what if a super-powered alien actually existed among us humans, the movie made constant existential and philosophical references to Gods and Demons and had a post-credit like scene in the middle of the movie itself. May be the movie was trying something different…you know taking risks with the genre. But according to most people who watched it, it sucked..it sucked ass… it was the ‘worst movie ever made’….anyone who made that movie should die (literal quotes from some well known people on twitter). It wasn’t a flop by any standards and for being just the 2^nd movie in a new cinematic universe it was a super-hit and such a beautiful enigma for its fans that it continues to be discussed and debated 2 years later.

At a time when the market was being flooded with a product of a similar kind by your rival, WB/DC should have had the courage (and the business sense) to stick to what makes them different ( that is what is called as an USP you basic level WB marketing morons!), it was the only way they were gonna survive. They had originally announced 3-4 movies in due course with great directors (Aquaman- James Wan, the Flash- Rick Fuwuyama, Wonder Woman - Patty Jenkins, Batman- Ben Affleck and few others) But they panicked. They butchered Suicide Squad to point where it was full of a lot of jokes and action (trying to ape Marvel) but no real meat as a story. They tried to meddle with Wonder-woman, trying to make it more crowd pleasing, but thankfully the movie was almost done at that point and the writers and the director had to fight to keep the tone of the movie as they envisioned it. Thankfully Wonder-woman brought a lot of success and turned out to be the one which pleased most people –audiences and critics alike. Although Snyder was himself one of the story writers, naysayers said they liked the movie only because he didn’t direct it. This kind of unwarranted hatred eventually lead to Snyder leaving twitter. By the time Justice League (JL) was being finished, there was already a lot of pressure to make it like the Avengers. Snyder’s original 2 part arc was to be cut into a 2 hour movie. More jokes were to be included. The intensity was asked to be toned down in order to make the movie more kid-friendly. However, Snyder still shot most of his movie but then due to sudden suicide of his daughter had to leave the project. Joss Whedon (Director of the Avengers) was asked to take over for ‘completing’ the project with a few 'minor reshoots'. 

This my friends…is where it all went wrong. To take the vision of a director who had been working on a project for more than 5 years, who had been making financially successful and yet bold risk taking movies, and to twist it  to please the people was a fucking awful move. JL released in the theatres was a Frankenstein of a movie which threw away all the careful character building of BvS for jokes and a lighter tone. After the initial euphoria died down, the DCEU fans hated it, some casual movie goers liked it but didnt love it, the haters appreciated its ‘light marvel-like’ tone (some even thanking God that Snyder’s daughter had killed herself at the right time) and the movie eventually made much lesser than it should have. In the end, WB had given up the very thing people watched DC movies for (intensity depth and something different) and of course they weren’t able to compete with Marvel on Marvel’s own territory.

This was truly a crises for WB/DC. Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill seemed to have quit their roles as Batman and Superman, the future of Snyder’s original vision still remains uncertain (#releasethesnydercut). But it also lead to several huge changes in WB/DC’s organizational structure. People who created the JL mess were fired or moved. WB seemed to be taking a more consolidated approach. Their first release post Justice League was going to be Aquaman. The fans didn’t know what to expect, the critics were ready as always to rubbish this movie and move into sucking Antman’s dick (seriously Antman and the Wasp was the most mediocre and boring MCU movie ever and critics still praised it as though it were a masterpiece). 

But James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw, Fast and Furious 7) is a talented director and it seemed that after the JL- Snyder fiasco, he had negotiated a deal that would allow him complete creative control. And you know what happened?

Aquaman is a fucking awesome movie! See WB?! SEE!!! This is what happens when you place your trust in talented people and let them do their job! Aquaman is by far one of the most exciting solo super-hero movies I have seen in a long time. It has adventure vibes of Indiana Jones coupled with the sci-fi imagination of Star Wars and also has the heart of Wonder-woman and Man of Steel. It is truly a dive into uncharted waters (sorry but had to do a pun) as we have rarely seen the underwater world setting explored on cinema. If not for anything else, go for the visual treat. After Avatar this is one of the movies which might hold you spell bound.

Aquaman is story of Arthur Curry whom you saw briefly in BvS and then more briefly (or is it less briefly..I don’t know) in Justice League. Arthur Curry is the son of a human father and an Atlantean (an underwater advanced ancient super-race) mother. This story is about how his half-brother and current ruler of Atlantis wants to invade the land as they continue to pollute his kingdom and a reluctant Arthur decides to stop him. While the story is a bit generic and does not offer the same kind of intensity we know DC for it still works for this movie. I mean it’s the first time we are being introduced to this world (Superman and Batman have already been in movies many times before) so it made sense to keep the story simple to set up the mythology. I personally didn’t like the script as it wasn’t as intense or layered as BvS, but I get what Wan was going for. Beside,s this script was probably written when WB was in its confused state, so maybe they wanted to take lesser risks with the story. I do have to say though that the movie lacks flow and shifts tone…maybe it’s the editing (so apparent that even my Wonder-woman thought the same), but it doesn’t flow as smoothly as Man of Steel or perhaps even Wonder Woman did.

But what it suffers in terms of flow or pacing, it really makes up for in terms of spectacle and performances. Everybody fucking owns their roles and Jason Momoa is amazing as Aquaman. Any non comic book fans have to understand that for many decades Aquaman as a character was the butt of jokes. Consistently being made fun of for his lukkha blonde look and his limited aquatic powers. Even the intense New 52 comic book run by Geoff Jahns couldn’t really wash off the years of ridicule. When Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa in Game of Thrones) was cast as Aquaman by Zack Snyder I was skeptical but trusted Snyder and co to make it work. And Voila! Momoa completely fits this role. His surfer dude, ‘don’t give a shit’ persona creates a beautiful paradox with his inherent need to help people avoid suffering. Momoa appears to be a genuine open hearted person in real life and that carries to his role. Add to it the fact that he has consistently been standing by the DC fans and Zack Snyder, makes him a likeable presence on screen for the fans. Also add to the fact that the long hair, hard abs and bad boy looks make him a ahem…likeable presence for all the women. But don’t worry guys, there is Amber Heard as Mera for you. She is a red head, extremely hot and has a killer attitude without coming across as too pretentious. Patrick Wilson (who previously worked in another DC film Watchmen) as the villain Orm/Ocean master should ideally have had more depth to his character in the script. Considering the reason he wants to attack the surface world is because of a relevant contemporary issue like pollution should have made him a villain who you can sympathize with. However, he is much more of a traditional villain but still brings his own qualities to the role. I would love for the story to explore more of his character in the sequels. Yahya Abdul Mateen as Black Manta is fantastic and even in small screen time makes for a menacing presence. Stalwarts like Nicole Kidman and William Dafoe perform effortlessly.

The real highlight of the movie and of Wan’s skills are the action set pieces. Wan clearly knows what kind of action people expect in a DC movie and gives them that. Some slo-mo scenes are clearly Zack Snyder inspired and unlike the choppy action of the Marvel movies, the scenes are shot in a way to clearly give you the geography of the scene…helping you keep track of each beautiful move and raise the stakes of the scene from being mere special effects show to an important aspect of the story. There are 3-4 one shot takes especially the one you saw in the extended trailer with Mera running on the roofs in Sicily, which is something only a masterful film-maker can shoot. The under-water epic battles are epic as they get and I especially loved the climactic scene. Without spoiling it, let me say that it is Lord of the rings followed by 300. Wan also depicts Aquamans communicating with all sea life in the most comic accurate yet badass way possible. 

The only things that didn’t work for me other than the pacing of the script was the background score. Now you can hate DC movies all you want but their music has always been really amazing. While Rupert Gregson Williams (Who also scored for Wonder Woman) has given a great combo of epic super hero music with synth/techno vibes to truly represent the meeting of two worlds, the movie chooses to use odd songs in many places, which looks like a remnant from Wan’s Fast and Furious. Also, the dialogue is pretty generic and unlike other DC movies which have fantastic dialogue, this one is pretty by the numbers.

While I understand that the movie may not be as pleasing for many hardcore DC fans like me, but if you are just being introduced to the world of Atlantis, then this makes for a pretty good beginning. Zack Snyder makes movies for the hardcore fans which maybe alienates a few others, while Wan and WB considering all the negative press, have I believe taken this conscious decision to make a movie which would be more universally appealing. I was looking for the movie to mention other DC characters but it doesn’t do that much. WB is still in its consolidation phase and is stepping carefully. They know that DC movies are better received abroad then in the US and they released it in China and then later in India first so that it gains some good press. Coming to the question of whether the DCEU is broken and whether it needs fixing, I never thought it was broken before WB meddled with JL.  They are still going on announcing movies nobody asked for (Birds of Prey, Plastic Man etc.) while not giving its real supporters what they want. But there is still hope… Wonder Woman 1984 and Shazam look like movies where WB has again trusted their directors, the DC stand-alone Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix looks promising…and Momoa and many others have come out openly in support of Snyder Cut of the Justice League….Men are still good, we fight we betray one another but we can rebuild…we will…we have too.

I am not gonna give a rating to this movie as I will always be biased towards DC movies. All I have to say is…do give this a watch especially on the big screen….you’ll be surprised by how much you enjoyed it.

PS- List of Easter Eggs/references in the movie-

• Thomas Curry (Arthur’s father) has the book ‘The Dunwich Horror’ in his house by H P Lovecraft. The story is about weird sea creatures crawling out of the sea and terrorizing a town.
• Black Manta has a quote before his fight scene in Sicily. That is also from a Lovecraft story.
• There is a commercial on the TV in a 80’s flashback which ends in ‘Why not try Arthur Treachers?’, which was a popular Fish n Chips chain.
• In the post credits scene, there is news cutting on a wall referencing wonder woman
• Oh and mild spoiler...the voice of the 'Karathen' creature is Julie Andrews from Sound of Music.

 T