KGF 2 Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
Historical and post-apocalyptic at the same time.
Inspired by true events, yet completely fictional. The protagonist and antagonist both rolled into one.
Alternate title: Everything Everywhere All At Once
Hey yall, thank you for sticking around on the channel. This is a movie review with me Sucharita and today we’re talking about the Kannada language release, KGF: Chapter 2, out now in movie theatres.
I have to admit it took me about 2 hours of coming down, playing wordle, reading the news, eating lunch with my partner, and considering taking a nap, before adrenaline in my body had slowed down enough for me to attempt writing this review, for whatever it's worth.
Kolar Gold Fields ki ownership ka mahaa sangraam jaari hai, some people who were thought to be killed are back, some others are poised ready to destroy each other in their greed. If you remember from “KGF 1”, Rocky is in the middle of all of this, planning his own grand schemes to take over not the just gold mine, but the world, one smuggling port at a time.
First things first, I can’t stress how important it was for director Prashant Neel to change the edit pattern for this one, kyunki KGF 1 gave me unnerving whiplash while watching on my TV at home, I can’t IMAGINE having to sit through those ship-in-storm style visuals, in a movie theatre, the motion sickness was real with that one. Not to mention, it was largely incoherent.
Here, editor Ujwal Kulkarni brings in a much-needed anchor, holding the screenplay steady, which rumbles and shakes a WHOLE lot, and needed strong base support. He also brings in Prakash Raj as the narrator this time, cutting back to him continuously, holding us closer to the story, and taking tiny, periodic breaks to make sure we’re with him.
Watching “RRR” I felt that Rajamouli was doing the absolute most. This is Prashant Neel asking us to hold his beer as he unfolds a truly Indian epic.
KGF 2 is unlike anything I’ve seen or experienced before. A “Dune”-like expansive, continuously evolving mythology, “Mad Max”-like unending, hostile terrain, “Sholay”-like socio-political commentary of an actual time in history, enveloped by a “Blade Runner” dystopia. Shot by cinematographer Bhuvan Gowda, every frame emanates literal heat, you can almost feel the hot wind on your face as your skin tans under a harsh sun, the back of your neck getting sweaty. The camera work is truly spectacular, comparable if not better than the best films produced in this genre, globally.
“Rocking Star” Yash is Rocky. A rags-to-riches gangster of sorts who's quite proud of his broken English, turning his shortcoming into swag in a way only Indian cinema heroes can. His long hair is always in his eyes, casting a dark shadow on his face, equal parts mysterious and equal parts sinister, and dear viewer I was in. Hook, line, sinker, this anti-hero had me.
Hoping finally for a historical tale about India’s actual gold mines, gold rush, the cold war, and how that impacted the nation’s politics and janta back in the day, 20–30 minutes into KGF I had completely forgotten about the first one having forgone my inhibitions about these larger than life, overtly masculine films.
Once firmly inside this bizarre world which is visually a period piece and somehow futuristic at the same time, I took my time to look around, thankful for some of the little English dialogue which let me peel my eyes away from the subtitles for a bit and admire the exquisite production design. The inside of the HQ at the goldfields is almost like the inside of the great pyramid of Giza as recently depicted in the Marvel series “Moon Knight”. Everything is big and grand, even the shanties where the mine workers live stretch out far beyond the frame, unimaginable without the help of the director. To envelop a character like Rocky, things around him needed to be just as colossal. Shot from many low angles, his frame is made to look much bigger than it is, to add to the mythos of KGF, of India’s el-dorado.
But why then, do these paragons of masculinity, must treat the women around them like second-grade beings, except their mothers who are goddesses? Srinidhi Shetty is “Reena Desai”, a character who I couldn’t for the life of me figure. In the previous film she hates him a whole bunch, he jumps her without consent a lot, but I thought they’d unfortunately fallen in love by the end, and yet here again she begins with hate as he forcefully keeps her in his house as “entertainment” picking out the clothes she’s supposed to wear.
She shoots at him with guns trying to get away, doesn’t understand why he’s revered so, but eventually, when blackness seeps into his heart and he becomes more of a tyrant, she falls in love with him which screams daddy issues and girl you have all the money in the world run!
The second half of “KGF Chapter 2 ”derails quickly. Sanjay Dutt is already a part of the screenplay, delightfully deranged as a Viking-culture-inspired bestial man, Adheera. Hair and make-up on point, Sanjay Dutt loses himself in a great way within this unhinged character. It’s not the first time we’ve seen him attempt this, “Agneepath”, “Panipat” being recent examples, but I don’t recall seeing him ever try so hard to make a character come alive on screen. Don’t know how much of it is CGI/stunt doubles, but the man can brandish a sword with surprising ease.
And yet, instead of working more with him, the second half of the screenplay meanders in about 3 directions all at once. Raveena Tandon appears as a manic politician, newly sworn in as PM, too quick to declare war on Burma just to prove a point to…Pakistan? No. Russia? No. The USA? No.
Rocky.
It's all marvelously irrational and might I say enjoyable in a purely larger than life way, until it gets repetitive. Raveena Tandon looks shocked with every new development and has very lax security detail for a PM considering Rocky just waltzes up to her office AND an ongoing parliament session dripping in blood. Disbelief suspend karein toh bhi kitna, something has to be rooted to some reality you’re presenting us with, right?
As Rocky begins to show a darker, eviler side, his greed beginning to take over, it becomes harder to root for him and the film both. His enmity with Adheera wasn’t particularly moving because not enough time was spent developing the antagonistic relationship. Amidst the earsplitting background score, I found myself waiting for Prakash Raj and Malvika Avinash’s scenes, so we could return to more unencumbered storytelling and eventually, the end.
KGF Chapter 2 is playing to max capacity in movie theatres, my 8 AM show had about 100 people. So if you do go watch, make sure you’re masked up.
Did you watch the Tamil release this week? Vijay starrer Beast, uska bhi review hai, dekhiye. Subscribe to the channel for all these and more!
