KGF Part 2

Starring Yash, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon

Directed by Prashanth Neel

Rating: * (1 star)

“Can you lower the volume? My head is splitting,” drawls Sanjay Dutt,playing a villainous Viking(yes, a Viking in the goldmines of Kolar).

That’s how I felt after almost three hours of ceaseless verbal and visual attack. I don’t know how I survived this ordeal. Perhaps Rocky, the Godlike hero who walks across the screen with a gun girl and grin, and who looks out for the persecuted and tortured victims of the universe, was looking out for me also.

But enough. Let’s not beat around the bush. KGF and its sequel are atrocious films.I don’t know which of the two is worse. KGF Chapter 2 is definitely louder and more aggressive, dangerously so. Neither of the two chapters has any merit whatsoever as works of cinema. They rely entirely on the verbal and visual impact to get the adrenaline rushing.

Young audiences react with hormonal excitement as the screen erupts in an outrageous display of arrogant spectacle.It is like being served an aphrodisiac with everyone on and off the screen chanting—in not to many words—‘Rocky mera naam, Rocky mera naam’. Just like Sanjay Dutt in Rocky decades ago. Alas today he is no more Rocky, but cocky nonetheless as Adheera the Viking in Kolar.

Don’t laugh. If we can have a Superman in Kerala why not a Viking in Karnataka?

Director Prashanth Neel pays no heed to the basic rules of coherent storytelling. When did he ever display any inclination to seal the borders of the constantly distending plot? The characters run all over the place barely able to register as anything more than representational puppets.Dutt and Raveena Tandon(she being the most aesthetic component of a film where the men look unbathed for months) are in out of the script . They deserve better. So do the audience.

One of the villains who I gathered was an undesirable from the smirk on his face asks Rockybhai to send his girlfriend to him.Much later when the unidentifiable villain(they all look the same after a point) begs for his life, Rocky says, “I’d have spared your life but you insulted my Rani…so bang!”

This is the same Rockybhai who had earlier referred to his Rani as “entertainment”. Just saying.

Here I must pause to mention that the above exchange is among the handful of dialogues that I could hear . Most of the sound-mixing is so uneven that the background score completely overpowers the dialogues.

Not that anyone is listening. This is strictly a spiritual experience between Rocky and his fans. He kills. His fans cheer. The others, like us the infidels, can go fuck themselves.