Kantara: Chapter 1 - A mass, doomsday prequel of a sacred religious story by Rishab Shetty
- Dibyojyoti Basu
- Oct 8
- 9 min read
Today I am going to talk about that movie, which is reaching everyone's mind and then their heart, and all are saying only one word: "Just wow." Yes, none other than Rishab Shetty's Kantara: Chapter 1. Rishab Shetty wrote, directed, and acted in this movie as Berme, and the other co-artists are Jayaram (Rajshekara), Rukmini Vasanth (Kanakavathi), Gulshan Devaiah (Kulashekara), Prakash Thuminad (Chenna), Deepak Rai Panaje (Sankappa), and many more artists. This film is produced by Chaluve Gowda (Producer), Adarsh JA (Executive Producer), and Vijay Kiragandur (Producer). The box office was crashed by a remarkable opening day collection of this movie around 61.85 crores. The total budget of this movie is 125 crores, and it has collected 414 crores worldwide as of the 8th of October. The story of this movie is a prequel to the story of Kantara: A Legend. I just can't wait to express my words and feelings towards this movie's story and screenplay and everything. The trailer shows us just 1% of the whole story. I can assure you that this movie will give you so many goosebumps that the body hair may erect and become permanent. And also I can say that such movies are rare in the current film industry. So, no more suspense now; let's move on to the main storyline of this movie and your critique collector's review zone.
The Story Line
The story starts at that place of the previous story where the father of Shiva, who had the spirit of Daiva in him, disappeared, and child Shiva didn't know the reason. When he asked about that place, he came to know the previous religious story of that holy place.
So many years ago, Daiva himself came to that place to protect this earth, the nature of this earth, and also the human beings and to establish justice over injustice. Along with him, one more energy came to the world. So many years later, there was a king who was so cruel. He knew about that place of Daiva and went to that place. Some aboriginals were living there and worshiped the Daiva there, following their rituals. But that king came and killed some of them and took the rest of the aboriginals captive. He forced them to work and punished them so brutally, sometimes to death. One day he caught a mysterious old man who had something more precious than gold or even silver. When the king asked about the source, he said it was the place Kantara. Thus the king took that old man with him to that place along with his heir and his soldiers to steal those precious gems. But there he got trapped. The soldiers lost their lives, and the king was killed by the Daiva there. His son Rajshekara was safe and was rescued by the aboriginals of the Kantara. When he got cured, he was returned by those aboriginals and got the responsibility of the kingdom.
Years passed, and he was blessed with a boy and a newborn girl. But that girl was unable to make a move. He gave his girl to someone, and thus she became normal. He told his children to never ever go to that jungle, Kantara. And on the other side, those aboriginals found a baby boy in a well, beside a tiger who was like protecting him. The mother who adopted that baby named him Berme. So many years passed, and Rajshekara made his son Kulshekara the new king of their kingdom. And Kanakavathi grew up as normal and stronger. But Kulshekara was not a good king at all; he was always drowned in alcohol and having some lady companion. He decided to go to the Kantara Jungle to hunt some animals. There they face some mysterious attacks, and then Kulshekara and his friends go back as they were so scared by that. But the soldiers fought there and died except for one, Chenna. He was rescued by Berme, and then they took him to their tent. When he got his sense back, Berme's head decided to let him back to his place. But Berme decided to go to the kingdom of Bandra with his friends by following that soldier. So that he can learn their politics and ethics to control a kingdom and to make some trades.
They took those dead soldier's uniforms and got entry into the kingdom. There, Berme saw Kanakavathi for the first time, and he was impressed by her beauty. But his friends started to steal there. When the real soldiers saw that, they called others to catch them, and then there's an action scene. At last soldiers caught them and took them to the king's court. When Kulshekara asked them where they came from, Berme answered that they were from Kantara. Listening to it, everyone got scared. They were then taken to the prison and tortured, but they couldn't feel anything. There Berme made some jokes on Kulshekara, and when he came to kill him, Rajshekara came and stopped him. He said not to argue with them, and the next day, he sold them to the traders. They were moved to the prison and met with Sankappa, a great builder. But the jailor, Pepe, was frightened when he came to know that they were from Kantara, and then he was intoxicated by them with their jungle leaves (a type of ganja). Thus, he watched their trading point and went to their jungle. They started harvesting and started trading by selling them. And also made some equipment for their village. Then they came again to the state to start trading and collected so many precious things. Rajkumari Kanakavathi came to know about this, and she gave permission for the trade. And after this, Rajkumari started to have some feelings about Berme. The villagers were so happy because of the new things. But to collect more unique things, they went further into the jungle; there he met with a tiger who was actually Daiva.
And here comes the interval climax. In that deep jungle there were some other villagers who did black magic on Daiva to control him. But Berme and his friends didn't know the story. Berme lost one of his friends, and when he was about to be killed by them, that tiger, who was actually the Daiva, came to protect him from them. And there, an interval came as that tiger started to Berme, and also Berme did that. And in this way, that baby boy rescued by a tiger clip is once again shown to us.
When they returned, they were scolded, but when Berme told all the truth, then everyone said that it might be Daiva who took them there. Then he came to know about those villagers—that once upon a time, those villagers came here to stay, but they used black magic against the Daiva to control them. But Daiva stopped it by sending Parvati's tiger. After that, those aboriginals ran away from there.
After this, King Kulshekaraa came to know that they were trading at their place; he sent his friends to kill them, but in return they were hurt brutally by Berme. Kulshekara got angry, and after that, he quarreled with his father and gave him some pills so that he would fall asleep for two days, and Kulshekara would destroy them, their place, and their Daiva. A brutal war was going on there, but Berme was not there in that moment. When he came back, the Kulika Daiva came inside of him, and he brutally killed everyone. Rajshekara woke up and came to know about his son's death. Thus Rajkumari went to Kantara to make a settlement between them by placing their sacred Daiva in their temple. Finally they agreed and made a settlement. But they were cheated. Those Karappa villagers were with them. So they started a war and used black magic to win. But at the end, Berme found Mahadev and Brahmarakhsas at that hole. He took that Trishul and freed Daiva from the black magic, and then he was possessed by the Kulika Daiva's holy spirit. And finally he won the war with the help of Panjurli and Kulika, the Daivas of them. At the very ending, Berme, who was possessed by Kulika Daiva (Chamundi), disappeared into that hole. Thus the story ended, but when young Shiva couldn't find that hole, he asked, "Where is the hole, then?" but there was another story about it, so we know we are going to see...
Critique Collector Review
The whole story of the film was too good. From the very beginning of the story to the last line, it was spellbound. And especially how they connect those two stories so smoothly—that is the main point to see, and they have cleared that point with no objections. So for connecting the two stories in a thread, it will get 10/10 from me. After that the story built up, and making the audience flow with that was so good. There were no points or any parts that may feel boring or unwanted. The character development of everyone was so nice and well written. Everyone got their places to showcase their acting in front of the audience.
As an audience member, I saw that the first half was so full of entertainment and was too funny. When they were coming to the palace, that scene was full of laughter and action. Even when the scene ends, it still ends with a funny dialogue. When they were arrested in the prison, the whole part was full of comedy. The jailor Pepe was so frightened about those Kantara aboriginals because there was always a concept that you should never argue with Kantara people, otherwise it'll hamper their life. Pepe came so bravely and became a coward; that part made us laugh so much. The whole auditorium was laughing with me. And when Pepe locked himself inside the prison, thinking that he had locked those people in was too funny because he was intoxicated.
The Chenna part was also so funny. How he escaped, went back to the castle, the tragedy to take them with him, and the most significant part, the lustfulness of his character, that never faded. In the previous story, he was another character, though the lustful nature was the same. I'll have no objection. If it is said that he is of the Chenna's lineage, it will only be a few years later. I thought that character vanished after a part, but it lasted long with his affair.
The first part has a minimum story, just character buildup,funny moments, and story buildup. But when the interval scene came, it gave me a massive goosebump. As their fight with the Karappa people and that tiger came to protect Berme.
And the second half is so fast because it follows the story very quickly. The quick flashbacks connect to the main chain. The whole story has some fast flashbacks that were connected to the main story. Any individual needs to be concentrated during the first story and the flashback parts; otherwise, they will not catch the story with better feelings. Well, I've some personal objections to some terms that pretend to us that they are from the current time. Like some words and some actions. But, overall, the whole movie is so energetic and purely religious.
I can share one thing about myself: the reaction after watching this movie. While watching the movie, I have totally enjoyed every funny moment and got involved in every spiritual and religious part. Not only me, but I saw that everyone in the auditorium joined with me. The show was a houseful, and the feeling of the decorum of the auditorium went from multiplex to single screen. There are so few movies that can create this type of ambience. And after completing watching the whole movie, I was speechless for near about 20 minutes, maybe more than that. I was completely silent and was thinking about that: what have I just witnessed? I was in a daze, and when this daze passed, I picked up my phone and made a call to my father, and I just said to him to watch the first part of Kantara and then go to the theater to watch this masterpiece as soon as possible. My father said that exactly these lines were told by my elder brother to him the previous day. As I said to my father, I also say to you all that you must watch this movie, the masterpiece itself.
Now it's rating time. I'll give 9.4/10 for acting, 8.6/10 for direction, 9/10 for story, 9.2/10 for screenplay, 8.8/10 for character development, 9.2/10 for story development, and 8.8/10 for dialogue.
The BookMyShow ratings are 9.4/10, the Google ratings are 4.8/5, and the IMDb ratings are 8.7/10. And finally, the Critique Collector ratings are 9/10, the overall rating depending on my personal rating of each section. The movie is a must-watch movie and gets a double thumbs up from me. We must support this type of movie. I heard about those "boycott Kantara chapter 1," though I went, watched it, enjoyed it, and saw that the full auditorium was enjoying it with me. So don't listen to these boycott things at all, and go watch the movie if you really want to feel the power of religion from the core of your heart.
Really enjoyed it and hope to see more movies like this in the future. And yes, one last piece of advice for those who are going to watch the movie, and that is, don't leave the auditorium after finishing the movie, because there is a special announcement for all the future updates. Otherwise you will miss the news, and when you hear about it after coming home, you'll be like, "When did that happen?" I watched the whole movie, but I haven't seen anything like this. So you must wait till the end exactly like the Marvel movies. Thank me later for this advice.
Thank you for reading my Movie Review Blogs.
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