A villain emerges from the fire, our hero enters to the beat of a 100 drums, and a cigarette is lit on the smoking hot barrel of a machine gun. Everything here has been turned up to an 11. This is a film that thrives on its own ludicrous energy. It’s three hours of spectacle after spectacle, mass moment after mass moment, punch dialogue after punch dialogue; all set to the sound of Ravi Basrur’s hair-raising score. On the surface this may seem like an exhausting mass fair, but the presentation of this story is refreshingly unique and makes for a thoroughly engrossing watch. It’s staged in a world that is as intricate and complex as a film like “Dune”. The cinematography by Bhuvan Gowda breathes with life, and the precise editing of the talented Ujwal Kulkarni takes even simple back-and-forth conversations and layers them with complexity. What director Prashant Neel has done here is take a simple story we’ve heard many times over, and he’s injected it with rocket fuel and set it on fire. Despite a few hiccups here are there, this is an impressively helmed film that gives the people exactly what they want and more, with style.
“KGF: Chapter 2” continues the story of Rocky (Yash), a once down-trodden boy who comes to take control of a clandestine gold mine in the 1970s. While this story is completely fictional, the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) is an actual place that still exists today; though gold mining was ceased in 2001. In “KGF: Chapter 2” we see Rocky as he tries to keep control of the gold mine against two very powerful adversaries. The first one being Adheera (Sanjay Dutt), a sword carrying brute who takes inspiration from the Vikings. Then there is Ramika Sen (Raveena Tandan), the prime minister of India who brands Rocky as the biggest criminal in the world. All this happens while Rocky, deep down, is pursuing his own personal mission at full force.
Though I enjoyed “KGF: Chapter 1”, I certainly had my issues with it. The editing of that film felt too fast-paced, the first half felt tedious, and the heroine (Srinidhi Shetty) does basically nothing. While Shetty still has basically nothing to do in this film, “KGF: Chapter 2” is a much more focused and toned epic. From start to finish, everything is connected together. If you loved “KGF: Chapter 1”, you’ll love “KGF: Chapter 2” even more.
A lot of the credit for this improvement has to go to the intricate editing of this film which cuts between different time-lines and geographic locations all within the same scene. To understand why the editing here is so powerful and unique, let look at the scene before the intermission. Here, Rocky has gone to Dubai to strike a deal with Inayat Khalil (Balakrishna). The scene begins with Rocky speaking with Khalil about the deal. Khalil goes on to say how Rocky is late to the deal and mentions all of his friends in India, and then we have various cuts which shows us all of these goons in the different parts of India. Then the film suddenly cuts back to a previous moment in the movie where Rocky was making a phone call. When we first see this scene we are not aware of what was said during the call, but now we hear that Rocky was plotting to kill all of the goons Khalil has just mentioned. As the dialogue from the call is going on, we cut back to the present where Rocky motions to one of the guns in the Khalil’s room. Rocky then asks for the name of the gun, “Kalashnikov” replies one of the soldiers in the room. Rocky holds the gun and says “Kalash…”, and then we cut back to Khalil’s goons we had seen earlier being eviscerated by Rocky’s team. Khalil now gets a phone call informing him of what has just happened to his goons and that he might be next. Then we cut to Rocky standing in front of Khalil, with the gun, “Kalashnikov!”. The tables have turned. This one scene smoothly cuts between different time periods and different geographies to effectively show us how Rocky rises to power again from a low point in the story. You cant help but cheer at the end of it!
Many have criticized this film for being haphazardly edited, comparing it to a movie trailer. However, as you can see form the above, there is a method to the madness. Cuts are precisely made to convey the right information to us at the right time. It’s similar in style to what we see during the baptism scene in “The Godfather”; however, here that technique has been developed and extrapolated to encompass an entire film. While this kind of editing style lends the film with a breathtaking pace, it also makes the film feel refreshing and unique because we aren’t just being told information we are being shown how that information has and is being evolved over large and disparate time-spans and locations.
The film is also caulk full of beautiful visual symbols. We have a hero who goes on to become a mythological figure, a danger ahead sign that gets reused to show resilience, and a throne being used as a foot stool. However, my favorite has to be that of a broken clock which no one wants to fix. When asked why no-one will stop the illegal gold mining of KGF, an officer turns to a broken clock in the office and says that no-one has come to fix that broken clock so who will even care to fix KGF? Then, when Ramika Sen comes into power, we see the clock getting fixed intercut with her acceptance speech. A powerful statement on how things have changed and the trouble that she will bring to KGF.
One of my biggest issues with the film is the weak love angle, there is barely any chemistry here and the romance song almost felt like it was shoe-horned into the story. There is an oddly edited chase sequence that felt a bit out of place, and can be hit-or-miss with people. Also, the abrupt revelation of a mastermind near the end of the film felt like it came out of nowhere, and ended as soon as it began.
However, “KGF: Chapter 2” is not where you’ll find the strongest story. It’s a film all about the treatment of its material, and so even these weaker points didn’t bother me too much amongst everything else that was on display.
It’s great to be seeing the Indian film industry succeeding at making epic films like this. Though I think “RRR” is a more globally accessible film, primarily because I think an international audience will be turned off by the aggressive and prolonged hero-worshipping that happens here. Nevertheless, “KGF: Chapter 2” is a film that I’m immensely proud of. Not only is it a vast improvement on its predecessor, but it’s also an impressive showcase of what a powerhouse the Indian film industry (not just Bollywood) has become.
