Spoilers ahead…
The film works at two levels. One, we get a huge action spectacle with inventive set pieces. And two, we get a style-filled masala movie, filled with whistle-worthy moments.
Prashanth Neel returns as writer-director in KGF: Chapter 2, starring Yash as the gold-hearted gangster named Rocky. But first, a recap. The first chapter was a Deewar-like story of a young boy coming to Bombay and becoming a famous gangster. And then, he is sent to Karnataka, where he becomes even more famous: he becomes the messiah of the people of a secret mining town called KGF. We met Rocky’s enemies like Shetty bhai in Bombay and Inayat Khalil in Dubai. We met the Indian Prime Minister, a woman whose face was never revealed, a woman who spoke of unleashing the army on Rocky while signing the death warrant of the man she considered “the biggest criminal in India.”
But the film began with a television anchor played by Malavika Avinash. She listens to the KGF story as told by a senior journalist, played by Ananth Nag – and that is the same framing device Prashanth uses in the sequel as well. There’s just one change. The narrator now is Prakash Raj, who plays the Ananth Nag character’s son. I did not realise this while watching Chapter 1, but these conversations provide two things: a breather between the hectically paced events, and they are also a small bit of spoon-feeding for the audience, because the story is so deep and dense. No, let me correct that. The story is fairly uncomplicated. It’s the narrative that’s deep and dense. And we’ll come to this later.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/kgf-2/
And you can watch the video review here:
Copyright ©2022 GALATTA.
Anon
April 14, 2022
BR, did you review chapter 1? I did a search but couldn’t find anything.
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Sri Prabhuram
April 14, 2022
@Anon: In his writeup about the biggest trends in south indian cinema in the past five years, he briefly wrote about KGF: Chapter 1.
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Vikram s
April 16, 2022
BR, great to see this write-up on kgf2. Looking forward to more kannada movie related articles from you.
Rakshith Shetty’s 777Charlie is releasing soon ..
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Abhinav
April 17, 2022
Great film and excellent review. I think Prasanth Neel is kind of a Desi Nolan (‘Desi’ not in a demeaning manner at all). The narrative is guided in an astonishing and somewhat complicated manner (Nolan-esque) , although the story/screenplay underneath is mass masala. Brilliant.
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shaviswa
April 19, 2022
Looks like KGF2 is doing better than Beast in Tamilnadu. Now….that is quite an achievement.
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Mankfan
April 23, 2022
BR surprisingly low comments for a film that is going to be the biggest hit of 2022…I guess your readers are sort of surprised by this review and are now conjuring up reasons to appreciate KGF2.
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Satya
May 1, 2022
Finally watched it. I must admit there are some really interesting narrative choices, like the Toofan song. On one hand, they are showing a re-cap of the first part and on the other hand, the kids of KGF retelling the story of Rocky like a play was such a folklorish moment – as if Rocky has already become a deity there. Even the mother’s grave arriving to KGF and its aftermath was a solid mythical scene.
Having said that, some moments were beyond ridiculous. In the parliament scene, after Rocky arrives with a gun, everybody runs away and Rocky also walks away scott free killing his enemy. This was so over the top, so off, that they literally placed a disclaimer throughout the scene “The Parliament visuals are entirely fictional”. I wonder how he left for KGF from Delhi without being harmed at least once. Also, if not for advancing conflicts in the film, I don’t see any real reason why Rocky spares Adheera in the second half, especially after establishing him as someone who cannot spare any threats (viz. Shetty’s death and the police station scene).
But then, that’s me. That me who thought Garuda’s execution in Part 1 was very well planned and executed. And the end had such a solid moment with the hero’s mother which was dealt brilliantly.
PS. Is it really necessary to go for a KGF 3, especially after providing a proper closure to Rocky and KGF minefields?
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