Cast: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Natarajan Subramaniam, K. S. Ravikumar, Redin Kingsley, Yogi Babu, Kovai Sarala, Mansoor Ali Khan
Crew:
Cinematography by Vetri Palanisamy
Music by Devi Sri Prasad
Editing by Nishadh Yusuf
Written by Siva, Adhi Narayana, Madhan Karky
Directed by Siva
Produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja, V. Vamsi Krishna Reddy, Pramod Uppalapati
Suriya has been promising to take Kollywood to Pan-India level with Kanguva from past one year. He worked on Kanguva with this dream from past 2 years with Siva as director to deliver a cinematic epic. He has been promotiong tirelessly for past three months expecting a good turn out to the film and the much awaited big box office success for him. His fans have been eager to see him make a big comeback as for past one decade, he has been delivering one underwhelming film after another. Let's discuss in detail, if Kanguva delivers on all the big promises.
Plot:
Francis Theodore(Suriya) lives in Goa and he is a bounty hunter. His girlfriend Angelina(Disha Patani) is also a bounty hunter and they keep accepting difficult tasks keeping their live in danger. One day, when Francis hunts for a criminal, accidentally the criminal dies in his hands. A kid, Zita watches this incident and Francis asks him to stay with him. He almost forces him but the kid starts to see Franics as Kanguva(Suriya). He keeps referring to him by the name of 2000 year old clan ruler. Why would he do so? Is the kid, a reincarnation? Is Francis really Kanguva's reincarnation? Why the kid is important to him and how Rudhira(Bobby Deol) is connected to all this? Watch the movie to know more.
Analysis :
Kanguva is an ambitious film with little effort put in to make it worthy. When you see a film like Avatar, you tend to ask yourself, what is the reason for making such a huge film with so many stunning visuals. You get 100 different perspectives to decipher about the ambition, social commentary, intention and honesty behind the craft. Kanguva lacks in inspiring such discussion even though it is technically good and spectacular visually. The problem lies in lacklustre execution.
Siva as a director is good visual grammar but has few extreme choices in comedy and high belief in commerical formula. There is a need for him to break out from those beliefs as his ambition, vision and visual capabilities are being hindered by his choices in comedy, loud scenes. He loves to showcase characters loud but there is difference in them being loud for the purpose and on purpose. This film seems to have loud scenes on purpose rather than suitable for the story and setting.
Also, he is able to patiently create a world, take us into it but then he is unable to sustain our interest in that world, in this film. You need the story to move and screenplay cannot feel stagnant forever. When there is so much to say and you limit it for the sake of putting it out in two parts, the weight of the ambition drags you down. Kanguva has lot going for with an inspired Suriya, good back ground score by Devi Sri Prasad, grand production values and great technical team.
Yet, the writing seems to be on the wall with characters having generic ambitions and never growing out of being cardboard pieces as lively characters. All the effort seems to have down a drain. Suriya's performance as Kanguva is much better and inspired than as Francis. Rest all actors also looked like they have been invited to a screaming match rather than to act as characters.
TeluguOne Perspective :
Kanguva needed a much better and innovative writing for all the effort, ambition and technical craft went into its making.
