Kantara: A Mystical Forest 😦
A spiritual, thought-provoking comedy. Spoiler Alert.
For those who don’t know, Kantara is a recently released Indian movie directed by Rishabh Shetty. He also plays the lead role in the movie. This movie has been grabbing all the headlines recently, and it's not a Bollywood movie. This movie is so influential that one of my friends changed his phone’s ringtone to its iconic music. The trailer of this movie was played in our lab, and everyone saw it.
I watched the movie last night in the theater and was compelled to share my experience. There are many layers to this movie. However, I would like to share one thing I found very interesting.😁
Before that, let’s have a look at the storyline.
This movie shows
- tussles among the tribals, government, and landlords, on who owns the land
- how a deity protects the forest
- in the end, the land doesn’t belong to anybody but the deity.
What I found most unique about this movie is
The Depiction of God😎
Whenever we imagine tribal people, their rituals, and their worship, we see them as illiterate, unscientific, and uncivilized. However, we forget that they are also thinking beings and have lived in that place for generations. They know many things about the place we don’t know. They know what they are doing. It’s just that we have not tried hard enough to understand their perspective. They can be unscientific in many ways, but they are performing their rituals with good intentions. 😇
This movie presents a very realistic depiction of what happens in rural India. The movie's first half is full of comedy and builds upon the characters. The second half is where it gets really serious and edgy.
The tribals perform a ritual called “Kola”. One worthy person dresses up as the deity, also called “Daiva”.
The bright yellow makeup of the person, the various expressions of the eyes, and the dance steps on the drum beat are a few of many things that makes it an engaging and mesmerising experience. 😃
It performs a ritualistic dance while the tribals stand there with folded hands.
There is one particular thing which makes it completely different from other depictions of deities — a loud and horrifying scream.😟
My friend jumped thrice from the seat due to this scream. There were instances when this scream was being played continuously for minutes.
This creates a unique environment where horror and spirituality are blended together. 😁
To sum up, this movie was an experience of its kind. I would call it a spiritual, thought-provoking comedy.
Go and watch it in a theater.😇
And those who have already watched it, please share your thoughts in the comments.
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