Kanguva Review - 3D Visuals is the Only Saving Grace of this Mockery Material

Ashwin Ram

Kanguva is a fantasy action flick starring Suriya and Bobby Deol in the lead roles. Directed by Siva, music is scored by Devi Sri Prasad and the grand venture has been produced by K.E. Gnanavel Raja.

Premise:

A promise that was given by Kanguvan to a little boy in the year 1070, how the characters and conflicts link at present in 2024 is the crux of the story.

Writing/ Direction:

The film opens at Goa with a bunch of bounty hunters. Goes on for a little over 30 minutes, probably the most annoying part of the movie. Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley and KS Ravikumar are all treated as jokers. The character behaviors, dialogue slang and the exaggerated appeal to it, everything feels so cringe about their roles. Also, there are too many visual texts to explain the silly details. Jumping on to the period portion, there is a world charted into five different clans, in which only two involve majorly in the script. It is said that there is vengeance between Suriya’s tribe and Bobby Deol’s, sadly till the very end they don’t show what it is nor explain it through a voice-over just for namesake. There is a thin connection between the two timelines, which is narrated in a lame manner through the director's point of view, rather than smartly placing it on the script, there is no story or a proper conflict to be precise. The period setting seemed to be comparatively better at first despite being a little flat, but becomes extremely boring as the flow progresses. There are a couple of theatre moments, but they don’t land as good scenes in the totality. Disappointing work by Siva, his trademark elevation points also go for a toss here, some visionary ideas are let down by poor execution and could sense a huge lack of conviction, especially in the dull Crocodile fight. Character of Kanguvan is written very inconsistently and in a lazy way, the traitor’s death scene in the first half showcases his empathy, the same situation is repeated again in the latter with his son. The saddest part is, there is a lot of scope to mock the movie, many heroic attempts land as laughing stocks. The loudness doesn’t work at all, resulting in unclear dialogues and becomes very jarring. There is absolutely no war, just a foolishly made One-Man-Army flick. The core emotion is so weak, the filmmaker has unfortunately trusted it so much which deteriorates the substance further. A big star is brought in the climax to give a lead for the second part, no foreshadowing and the sequence is terribly done.

Performances:

Suriya in dual roles, stylish presence as Francis, while Kanguvan is a fierce warrior. His beefed up body-built helps, but his dialogue delivery feels fake in many places, man has also struggled to manage his heavy attire and sword. Bobby Deol in a dummy villain role who just kills for no reason and there is a lot of blood-shed around him to make him look menacing. With the current timeline portion running just for forty minutes, there is barely any screen space and importance for Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley and KS Ravikumar. It is actually a good thing, as all they do is irritate the crap out of the audience.

Technicalities:

Except for Thalaivane, it is a lackluster album with such dull songs, especially the fire song and Yolo tracks fall extremely flat. Background score is comparatively better, though a mixed bag, the heroic moments get enough musical elevations. Excessive usage of random colors in the Goa portion, barring that, Vetri’s visuals are amazing. The period portion looked fantastic, he has given impeccable variety for the different terrains. Just a 150 minutes duration for a biggie is a blessing, but there are many scenes to chop further, still there won’t be any change in the result as runtime was never the issue here. Age-old cut patterns and ditto the same moon transition was applied over and over again. The stunt team has executed certain mass ideas well, the tree fight for example, very normal otherwise and overall the action sequences miss out to offer goosebumps. Excellent 3D conversion, appreciable to have taken some shots in keeping the immersive technology in mind, the depth and pop-outs were exciting to witness. Art department, costumes and makeup team have given their fullest to achieve a convincing quality for the world created.

Bottomline

The grandness, immense effort from Suriya, the astounding look and feel go in vain due to the poor content. There is a vision to deliver something big, nothing is possible without a worthy substance.

Rating - 2/ 5