King Of Kotha Review

King of Kotha review: The King wins, the film doesn’t.

Synopsis

Violence and drugs are into overdrive in Kotha where Kannan Bhai (Shabeer Kallarakkal) rules the roost. Everything including the law and order is under his control with the police being mere puppets. Having just taken charge, CI Shahul Hassan (Prasanna) hatches a plan to end Kannan’s stay by slyly bringing back Raju (Dulquer Salmaan) who was once Kotha’s unofficial ruler and Kannan’s long-time friend. How this game of lies and deceit pans out is what King of Kotha is all about.

Performances

In his first full-length film as a mass hero, Dulquer Salmaan ticks most of the boxes. He looks the part, has that swagger about him and also sets the screen on fire with his presence. Be it in the action sequences or the dialogue-laced face-offs, Dulquer packs a punch. The rest of the cast don’t really have much to do, including Shabeer who does do a neat job as the antagonist despite the weak characterisation. The film in general suffers from poorly written characters. Among the female characters, Nyla Usha atleast has something to offer while Aishwarya Lekshmi and Anikha Surendran get negligble scope to emote.

Technical side and script

King of Kotha is made on a massive budget but when that is taken into account, the film doesn’t really look grand enough. However, it is still visually a neat product from Nimish Ravi who has cranked the camera. Jakes Bejoy’s background score is a major plus and among the very few positives in the film. The soundtrack, though, is barely average and there aren’t any memorable songs to take away. All this could have been neutralised if the film had an engaging screenplay. Unfortunately, that’s where King of Kotha struggles the most. As mentioned earlier, the characters are poorly written and although you expect cliched sub-plots in such a genre, the packaging has to be different to succeed. Some of the portions make you wonder if any serious discussions were ever made during the scripting stage.

Debutant director Abhilash Joshiy loosely takes a premise out of his father’s (legendary director Joshiy) yesteryear blockbuster ‘Kauravar’ that starred Dulquer’s superstar father Mammootty. It is perhaps not a coincidence and appears to have been intentional but the execution falters big time when it comes to King of Kotha. The script penned by Abhilash Chandran is an old wine that’s presented in an even older bottle. There are a few clap-worthy moments but sandwiched between them are a series of sub-plots that are unintentionally funny, particularly in the second half. The main conflict lacks the punch and the family angle isn’t convincing either. It is the fab action blocks that hold the film from entirely falling off the cliff. There is a certain rawness and finesse about the fight scenes which are further elevated by Dulquer’s charisma. Sadly, that’s all that the film has to offer.

Final word

Mollywood has a serious dearth of films in the mass genre and Dulquer Salmaan shows strong promise as a potential star for such kind of cinema. But he shouldn’t be anywhere near films like King of Kotha if he wants to establish himself as a true-blue superstar.

Verdict – Below average

Compiled by Hariprasad Sadanandan