Kanguva (Telugu) Review

One of the most expensive Tamil films ever made with a reported budget of over Rs 300 crore, Kanguva tells the story of a tribal warrior and his young ward, Poluva, transcending the barriers of time and space. The reincarnation-themed narrative leaps from the tribal kingdoms of Pranavaadhi in 1070 - where war erupts between a realm of five island biomes (Snow, Desert, Watery, Forest and Grassland) - to modern-day Goa, where a carefree "shadow cop" named Francis (Surya) bounty-hunts criminals alongside his comedic sidekick Colt (Yogi Babu). When Francis encounters a young boy code-named Zeta, who has mysteriously escaped from a Russian medical research facility and landed in Goa, the two feel an inexplicable connection. Zeta is Poluva, and Francis is Kanguva (Surya).

From its millennia-spanning story to its meticulously crafted sets, Siruthai Siva's Kanguva has ambitions that stretch to the moon and back - quite literally, as the moon serves as both a recurring visual metaphor and a focal point that bridges the film's two timelines.

However, these lofty aspirations translate into a cacophony of loud, illogical and emotionally hollow storytelling that feels reminiscent of KGF. Take, for instance, a scene where Francis, inexplicably drawn to the lonely and silent Zeta, takes him to a restaurant only for them to be ambushed by armed Russian operatives. The sequence devolves into absurdity as the Russians, who rappel dramatically from helicopters, indiscriminately open fire despite their high-value target being inside. Even more inexplicably, they flee not in the helicopters they arrived in but in a convoy of cars, leading to a cargo plane with its hatch left open mid-flight, perfectly setting up a heroic rescue of the boy. Meanwhile, Francis, who finds himself in handcuffs and unable to chase after the goons, dramatically breaks his own fingers to free himself - ignoring the fact that the handcuffs were a playful prank by Angela (Disha Patani), his on-again off-again girlfriend, who could've easily handed him the keys.

Neat logic is, of course, the first casualty on the writing desk of a commercial film, but in Kanguva those sacrifices never add up to any emotional rewards. Between the film's breakneck pacing and the garishness of its characters, it is hard to empathize with Francis, bloodied and broken, as he chases after the Russians. Or with Zeta who is chained-up and carried by the Russians like he is a duffel bag. We have even less curiosity about the origins of the shadowy Russian Commander of the facility in which Zeta and other children are being experimented on. The setting inside the facility where a silhouetted figure lords over a roomful of high-tech graphics screens looks suspiciously like AI-generated visual clutter, leaving us further uninspired.

The ancient timeline fares no better. When the story shifts to 1070, it introduces an improbable scenario wherein the Roman Empire sends troops to conquer one of the realm's islands as a training ground for its soldiers. Instead of this colonial incursion materializing, the tribes descend into civil war: the Pranavaadhis, led by Kanguva, clash with the Kapaalas, led by the bloodthirsty Udhira (Bobby Deol). The potential for a riveting political drama between five clans is squandered as the story repeatedly narrows to forest skirmishes between Kanguva and a handful of enemies. The central relationship between Kanguva and Poluva - meant to be the film's emotional core - drowns in melodrama, rendering it ineffective, too.

Kanguva the movie makes a very earnest bid to earn its label of an epic saga. The Pranavaadhi sets and visual effects are breathtakingly-detailed, and Devi Sri Prasad's grand, pulsating score pumps up the spectacle. But all these elements clang together in a cacophony so relentlessly loud and unforgiving that the film feels like a carpet-bombing of our senses. To give you a sense of the filmmaker Siva's maximalist sensibilities, the tribal costumes include claw chains, face markings, dreadlocks, earrings, skull headgear, and layers of rags and fur - and that's just the Pranavaadhis. The kapaalas with their read-streaked barbarian aesthetic are even more flamboyant.

The film's flat, oversaturated visuals - particularly in the Goa sequences - give parts of it a B-grade slapstick quality. Francis and Colt's banter is so painfully forced that even Francis acknowledges it as "cringe. da." The climax feels like one long uninterrupted shriek. Of people calling out to each other: Kanguva! Poluva! Amma! Aiyya!

When judging a film of such disastrous quality, we come to think of the lead actor as being "trapped" or "let down" by other departments. But more realistically, it is the needs of the actor - his need to be "elevated"- that the plot tries to accommodate, that consequently dooms it to failure. Why else have an unnecessary tussle between Kanguva and a crocodile - a fight scene that comes right after two, three more such bravado-establishing scenes?

Surya gets to do it all: be the zany bounty hunter with the white-streaked hair, and growl and grit his teeth with bloodlust as the beloved but misunderstood warrior-prince Kanguva. But even with Surya's inherently pleasant face, his two avatars oversaturate the screen, spill over its edges and stick on us so that we feel not much like we are watching the film but being subjected to its tortures. Bobby Deol, meanwhile, is stuck playing a more psychotic version of his Animal avatar, manspreading himself across a throne of skulls in a crimson-drenched landscape. The only glimmer of genuine emotion comes from the child actor playing Poluva, whose expressive performance is a rare highlight (though, frustratingly, finding the actor's name online proved impossible).

What's most disappointing about Kanguva is its refusal to take narrative risks despite its massive budget and ambitious concept. Take away the costumes and sets; the VFX animator and the DALL-E experts; and its conceit of rebirth and past-lives karma; and all that is left is a rather stretched-out story about a man and a boy who form an unlikely bond in the strangest of circumstances. It may have had the potential to be a poignant and bittersweet story about a "found family", or at the very least a gritty story of revenge. But Kanguva commits to being nothing more than an obnoxious howl of a film that will leave you slighter deafer than when you went in. And for those watching the Telugu-dubbed version, there's the added frustration of botched subtitles, which inexplicably appear near the centre of the screen.