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!!
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