Kaanta Movie Review: A Different Attempt with Mixed Results
Hero Dulquer Salmaan, who has been impressing audiences with different stories and scoring consecutive hits, is now racing ahead. Kanta is the film featuring Samuthirakani, Dulquer Salmaan, Daggubati Rana, and Bhagya Shree Borse in key roles. For a movie to come before the audience, many incidents and conflicts take place behind the screen. Everyone knows the level of ego that exists in the film industry. Sometimes, these aspects are even used as jokes in certain films. In Tollywood too, once heroes reach a certain range, they start putting their hand into the story and even begin lecturing the director. There are several instances said to be true where movies flopped at the box office due to the heroes' interference in the director’s role. Now, this trend is increasing even more. After one or two hits, some heroes think they should do everything themselves, and such an approach has led to terrible outcomes.
Kanta is one such story. Director Selvamani Selvaraj succeeded in captivatingly depicting the conflict that arises between a director and a hero while making a film. When a director brings an orphaned man into the industry and turns him into a top hero, how does that hero treat the director who gave him life afterward? What does the director, who developed anger toward that hero, do? The director wants to make a film titled Shanta based on his mother’s story, but the hero puts conditions—he won’t act unless the climax is changed. Why the movie’s title was changed from Shanta to Kanta is what this film is about. Samuthirakani excels with his performance in the role of the director, while Dulquer Salmaan truly lives the role of the hero. Bhagya Shree Borse gets her first opportunity through this film to showcase her acting and does complete justice to her role. With the engaging sequences showcasing the progress of the film shoot, most of the first half remains gripping.
However, the second half feels slow. The seriousness in the story also dips. In this film, the heroine gets murdered. The entire second half revolves around the investigation of this case. Rana’s entry also takes place only in the second half. The twists here and the climax impress the audience. The whole movie revolves around just four characters. Dulquer Salmaan impresses as Mahadevan. Samuthirakani’s action in the role of Ayyi is on another level. Bhagya Shree Borse gets a role that allows her to prove her acting. However, from the regular entertainment perspective, Kanta may not appeal much to audiences. But if one wants to know how things work in filmmaking—the issues, the egos—and if one loves the characters played by Dulquer and Samuthirakani, then they will like the movie. It can be said to be a new kind of experiment.
