Kantara: Chapter 1 (2025)

While a group of youngsters are exploring the forest, they encounter a great well amidst the foliage. Intrigued, they ask one of their guides to regale them all with a story of elemental proportions that takes them back centuries to the very emergence of local deities in the ancient Bangra kingdom. There were two tribes who coexisted, peaceably enough, sharing the fruits of their idyllic wilderness until one strayed onto the territory of the other with tragic results. This led to a reciprocal action that soon had all the hallmarks of a conflict that will involve trading in not just the spices and coffee, but in further facilitating the Portuguese-operated slave trade supported by the violent and cowardly king “Kulshekar” (Gulshan Devalah). Despotically, he seizes on an opportunity to invade the jungle garden to destroy their village and enslave the people after their leader “Berme” (Rishab Shetty) takes control of their port and so sets up a battle of epic proportions between not just these two men, but of the powerful daiva who are now empowering both sides with some super-human powers. Given the richness of the mythology and the colourful vigour of the production, this is quite a thrilling story that showcases Shetty as a charismatic action hero with an heart of gold whilst also allowing Devalah to have some fun as the brooding megalomaniac too. Aside from a little politically charged romance with princess “Kanakavathi” (Rukmini Vasanth) it’s all grand scale, end to end, stuff that effortlessly mixes the fantastic and the mythological with loads of pyrotechnics and combat scenarios that intertwine the plentiful CGI into the action scenes to create quite a compelling and entertaining adventure movie. Yes, there are a few songs - and I don’t love those, but it’s almost three hours flew by and I enjoyed it.