On the occasion of Ugadi, the makers of ‘Kantara 2’ have started the work on the film’s script. Taking to social media, Hombale films shared the update.
“On this auspicious occasion of Ugadi & New Year, we are delighted to announce that the writing for the second part of #Kantara has begun. We can’t wait to bring you another captivating story that showcases our relationship with nature. Stay tuned for more updates,” a post read on the Instagram page of Homable Films.
Fans became excited after knowing this update.
“Woah…can’t wait for Kantara 2,” a social media user commented.
“Best of luck to team Kantara,” another one wrote.
Actor-director Rishabh Shetty announced the prequel of the movie ‘Kantara’ at an event marking the celebration of the movie hitting hundred days at the box office
Rishabh said at the occasion, “We are very pleased and thankful to the audience who had shown immense love and support to Kantara and taking the journey ahead, with the blessing of almighty Daiva the film has successfully completed 100 days and I would like to take this opportunity to announce the prequel of Kantara. What you have seen is actually Part 2, Part 1 will come next year. The idea has been flashed into my mind while I was shooting for Kantara because the history of Kantara has more depth to it, and currently, if the writing part is concerned we are in the middle of digging into more details. As the research is still progressing, it would be very early to reveal details about the film.”
Set in the fictional village of Dakshina Kannada, Kantara follows the character of Shetty who is playing a Kambala champion who has a faceoff with an upright Forest Range officer.
Urvashi Rautela will be seen in the second part. (ANI)
Rangnath Singh, a film buff who specializes in religious studies, says that the Kannada movie establishes that religiosity is not dependent on grand temple-like structures
The Kannada film Kantara has invited conflicting reactions from viewers as well as reviewers. The film is being criticized for promoting superstition. Those who find this film superstitious are the ones who ignore an important aspect – whether this superstition is harmful to society or useful. You cannot equate the social ills of child marriage and Sati Pratha with acts like worshipping a tree; the latter is a manifestation of interdependence between human and nature.
A section of people believes that not believing in God is rational thinking. This is borne out of a sense of intellectual superiority. One fashionable example of this is calling religious beliefs a lack of scientific temper. We conveniently forget that most of the great scientists like Einstein, Newton, and Ramanujan also talked about some cosmic order or the supernatural.
The criticism of this kind centers on superstition with selective text from religious books. They do not understand that like Engineering, Medical Science, and other modern disciplines, Religious Studies have also developed in recent years. Some eminent scholars of Religious Studies in the last hundred years like William James, Mircea Eliade, and Rudolf Otto defined religion, as not based on any particular scripture or a specific sect.
In this aspect, Kantara carries a strong narrative. Its religiosity and spirituality do not harm anyone. Its criticism on the point of superstition stands on its head.
Most of the reviewers have noticed three major players in this film: Indigenous People, The King, and The State. The fourth player is ‘greed’, which comes from the city. The basic clash is on land ownership. Either King is the owner or the State. The State treats forest land as its resource and the Forest Officer is trying to acquire the land. He finally resolves his conflict by giving the people concession that it would let people live after a boundary is made. He understands how to strike a balance between indigenous people and forest conservation. But look at the successor of the feudal lord that comes from Mumbai — he wants to snatch this land.
One important point is the manifestation of duality between Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic ‘dignities’. Non-Abrahamic morality treats this world as Divine but Abrahamic morality does not find it Divine as it treats this world as profane. The duality between both philosophies has been manifested brilliantly in this film.
Notably, religion is nowhere to be seen in the form of big temples in this film. Durkheim has said that we do not need God for religion. No grand narrative is needed for a common man’s morality and dignity. I felt that this film establishes this point remarkably: that the human being is just a resident of this nature like other living beings. This nature is not for exploitation and appropriation. The film shows the synchronic relationship between man and nature. Here man does not suppress nature. Here, varah is sacred, the tree is sacred.
A textual deconstruction of the film may be seen in The King agreeing with Daiva to give some of his forest lands to the local tribes in exchange for peace. But for The King’s successor who is an urban individual appearing after more than a hundred years, nature is merely a property to sell because he is rational. He does not differentiate between the sacred and the profane. This may be termed as rationality but it is essentially inhuman.
There is certainly a tone of Hindu revivalism in this film. But I feel that the autocratic idea of one God, one belief system, which is being promoted nowadays, is undemocratic in nature. In his book named Classic Varieties of Religious Experience, William James has written that religious experience is the fundamental thing. He says that religion is usually criticized on the face of its bad aspects but we need to see the sublime. After all, why did people follow Buddha, Christ, or Mahaveer, or people like Kabir, Tulsi, and Rumi? Religion manifests itself in myriad forms at individual and collective levels. It does not require huge structures.
Many people are writing that this film is ‘loud’. This criticism comes from the elite understanding and it is a class statement. This ‘loudness’ is natural, real, and very close to nature. The most positive element of this film is that it does not fall into a binary. It shows the most ancient form of religion that we have forgotten.
Sreyashii Sengupta, a media & entertainment professional, says Kantara, the recent blockbuster from South, tells a relatable story with relatable faces from native cultures
Kantara evokes certain feelings while inside the theatre hall and once out of it. The film builds up in a frenzy and into a crescendo. Not just with its action but with its sheer energy as per the logical progression of the storyline. It is a rustic film for the masses which has worked because of the hinge on folklore – indeed, the masses don’t debate on the authenticity of myth or belief.
Rather than revivalism, it plays on notions of power of the powerless, inherent beliefs in nature and rule of the Universe, rather than the rule of the dominant castes. This is entwined with a whiff of cultural belief which has appealed to not just a single-screen audience in the south but or ‘multiplex mindsets’ as well, which are now becoming ‘language-agnostic’ and content-hungry, seeking newer modes of story-telling. It may not be the best made film nor the best cinematic experience, but what it underlines is local stories from the ground that people can identify with and which catches on like fire. Add to it emotions of justice and spiritualism and you have a winner among people who have for centuries had religion and spiritualism as a core unifier.
The story has in its heart a ‘forest revolution’ and a sort of guerrilla warfare. There is also the basic tenet of nature and a super, unexplained power that is stronger than humans and protects the downtrodden; this will always work. Superstition, devotion and religion are not new in India and have always been part of the social fabric, especially among the vulnerable and helpless. The film plays on these notions and the grabbing of power by the powerless. It is a catharsis marked by mass, commercial cinema. Significantly, mainstream Hinduism does not appear in the film — a demigod does.
What Rishabh Shetty’s film does is reaffirm indigenous beliefs with a generic trace of timelines from the 1840s to 1990s, thus giving us a whiff of the peak end of the Veerappan era as well. Certain bits in the dialogue have a tinge of satire of this era, in the poaching or in the illegal cutting of trees. It is interspersed with intense, anthropological symbols and local beliefs with sub-plots of caste, land rights and tribal politics.
Sengupta feels Bollywood is not the benchmark for ‘Indian content’
The last dance is almost a tandav by Shiva, the protagonist, with war cries of angst. The guise of folklore, spiritual symbols and native cultures is a deeper story loaded with commercial colour. This is needed for tales such as this in regional cinema. It is actually a simple tale of revolt wrapped in folklore and traditional, spiritual practices.
Indeed, Bollywood need not be a benchmark for ‘Indian content’. It does not matter what Bollywood does or does not! We need to start viewing content as ‘Indian content’ with a strong regional flavour, which is what audiences accept now, whereby language is no longer a concern. People want local stories that have a human connect. We have had cinema from the Hindi-film industry that has dealt with social inequality (Sadgati, Madhumati, Sujata), but they were peripheral, smaller productions or beautifully put-together stories — and not in the manner in which Kantara or Asuran have been made. Real and in-the-face.
The Hindi industry has been obsessed with stories that put glamour and glitz as priority (including how the protagonists look), with aspirational lifestyles in mega-blockbusters, where perfection is key – from sets to stories to chiselled looks of “stars”. The need of the hour is human, relatable faces, and stories.
Southern cinema has never had a stereotype for the hero unlike Bollywood. The storyline would not have been authentic without Shiva. He is a tribal wayfarer and not a drop-dead-gorgeous man with charm oozing. He is relatable with an ‘every day image’. Yes, there were cringeworthy moments with gender tropes and glorification of masculinity, (the extremely cringeworthy pinching of the lead actress), besides, some, very lewd dialogues. However, some bits make it real as well.
Hopefully, concepts of touch would slowly and subtly change for mass-messaging as well. Thankfully, we did not have the perverse ‘item numbers’ that are derogatory and so akin to Bollywood. What is phenomenal is the last act by the hero. No matter how loud, the performance was a class act.
The narratoris founder and managing director of Darpan Global, a Singapore-based production and distribution company, and CEO (South East Asia) of Continental Entertainment Pte Ltd (CEPL), Singapore. She lives in Kolkata and Singapore.
As told to Amit Sengupta
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