In the recent past, this writer has observed a growing smugness among the superstars of the South, a feeling of we-don’t-need-you-perhaps-you-need-us vis a vis the Hindi film industry.
Many of these Southern A-listers have personally told this writer that they have no burning ambition to do Hindi films, although Rajinikanth the biggest Southern Superstar, made many attempts to be part of Filmistan and failed.Ditto Kamal Haasan.
That said , we accept that the South brigade doesn’t need Hindi cinema. But does that give them the right to look down on Filmistan? Rishab Shetty’s recent remark after the National award for best actor that Hindi cinema shows India in a “poor light” smacks of condescension .This, coming from an actor from Kannada cinema, is rich, considering most of the stuff coming from that part of the world was consumed locally only until Yash and KGF.
So if according to Rishab Shetty, Hindi cinema shows the country in a poor light, just how rich is the light that Kantara sheds on India? The overrated film unabashedly promotes tribalism, especially in the last half hour where Rishab Shetty’s tribal dance is projected as a supernatural frenzy-fit devoted to the gods.
The entire film is encapsulated in the last 20-25 minutes. The rest of the film is about a bunch of rowdies who think deforestation is not to be taken seriously until Nature strikes back with a roar that can frighten a boar.
Of course, no one is going to question the intrinsic merits, the cinematic qualities of these films. No one spoke of the cinematography editing and direction of Jai Santoshi Maa when it swept the nation of its feet with its mythological primitivism .
No one said a word about the shoddy characterizations in Kantara, its thinly veiled misogyny. There are times when it becomes difficult to bear the blizzard of crudity. There is for example, the character of the hero’s tharki friend who even flirts with the hero’s mother.
Most important of all, did Rishab Shetty deserve the National award for Kantara? Would jury members please point out where in Kantara do we get to see the leading man giving a commendable performance? Or are we staring wide-eyed at the politics of appeasement?