Review of Kantara: Chapter 1 (2025) Myth, Ritual, and the Burden of Grandeur

Here’s a humanised review of Kantara: Chapter 1, weaving together its strengths, shortcomings, and the emotional pulses that make it both thrilling and flawed. (If you haven’t seen it yet, there are mild spoilers — but nothing that ruins the big revelations.)

A Glimpse into the World

The film is a prequel to the 2022 hit Kantara, transporting us far back to around 300 CE during the Kadamba dynasty. It seeks to uncover the roots of legends, tribal spirituality, and mythic struggles between humans and the divine.

From the outset, you sense that this is a labour of love: the forests, rituals, cosmic stakes, and characters are all steeped in myth and local folklore. The idea isn’t just to entertain, but to immerse — to let you feel the tension between power and nature, devotion and greed.

What Works: The Highs

1. Visual Spectacle & World-Building
   The film is gorgeous. The cinematography, lush forests, sacred rivers, rituals by firelight — these are all rendered with care and grandeur. You feel the dampness in the air, the looming trees, the energy in folk prayer, and the terror in divine possession scenes. It doesn’t just look like a mythic tale — it feels like one.
2. Sound, Score & Rituals
   The music and sound design pull you in. Folk drums, ritual chants, the crescendo of sound in the moments of divine fury — they elevate scenes beyond just spectacle into something visceral. These are the moments when you lean forward in your seat.
3. Strong Performances
   Rishab Shetty as Berme (or Burme) is central. He carries not just the weight of action but emotional burden: grief, rage, leadership. Rukmini Vasanth as Kanakavathi brings emotional grounding. Gulshan Devaiah’s Kulasekhara is a credible antagonist, with his own shades of insecurity and ambition. Jayaram rounds out the cast with gravitas.
4. Ambition & Mythic Themes
   This isn’t a small movie. It aims high: divine beings (Daivas), possession, ancestral pacts, the sanctity of nature, the cost of greed, class/hierarchy, power and resistance, spiritual identity. All that is ambitious, and in many places it succeeds. It doesn’t shy away from asking big questions: What is owed to nature? What is the price of violating sacred traditions?
5. Climactic Payoffs
   While the first half is slower, the film builds — pre-interval sequences, action in the forest, and especially the climax — often deliver goosebumps. Rituals that blur human and divine, the physicality of possession, the climax of divine wrath: these portions tend to stay with you after you leave the theatre.

What Falters: The Lows

1. Pacing & Exposition Drag
   One of the biggest complaints is that the film takes its time — perhaps too much time — to set up its world. The first half, in particular, feels heavy on exposition, and certain sequences seem to linger without adding enough forward momentum. If you’re impatient for action or suspense, this may test your endurance.
2. Tonality and Comic Relief Misfires
   There are moments when the film tries to lighten the mood or add humor, but those moments sometimes feel tacked on, clashing with the seriousness of the rest of the narrative. These tonal shifts can disrupt immersion.
3. Underdeveloped Supporting Threads
   With myth, folklore, and multiple characters, there’s a lot to juggle. Some side characters or subplots feel less fleshed out, or their motivations less nuanced. You care deeply about some arcs (Berme, Kanakavathi), but others are more functional than emotionally resonant.
4. Visual & VFX Inconsistencies
   Overall impressive, but the ambition sometimes overshoots execution. Some VFX sequences, especially involving animals or shape-shifting mythic beings, are spectacular; others are a bit rough around the edges. When the CGI is perfect, it elevates scenes magnificently; when it’s not, especially in wide shots or fast movement, it’s more noticeable.
5. Familiar Patterns vs. Freshness
   Because this is a prequel and follows many mythic/folkloric templates, some of its story beats will feel familiar: oppression, hero-rising, betrayal, divine justice. For those who loved Kantara (2022) or are well versed in folklore epics, there’s a sense of déjà vu. While that doesn’t necessarily harm, it sometimes dampens the surprise factor.

Emotional Resonance & Cultural Echoes

What strikes most powerfully in Chapter 1 is how it taps into ancient roots — of ritual, belief, nature, identity. The folklore isn’t just window dressing; it’s woven into the characters’ lives. The forests, the rites, the ancestral pacts — these aren’t exotic backdrops, but living, breathing parts of the story. For many, this deep cultural embedding adds a weight and authenticity that cinema often only dreams of achieving.

The themes of ecological respect, of what happens when outsiders (or rulers) attempt to exploit sacred land, feel particularly resonant in today’s context — where land rights, deforestation, exploitation of indigenous cultures are ongoing struggles.

Also, the sense of awe — of the sacred, of the divine, of nature — is strong. The film does make you pause at the crackle of fire, at the roar of drums, at the moment possession overtakes flesh. Those moments of transcendence are its biggest emotional returns. If the film sometimes feels slow, it is often to build up to those peaks.

Final Take & Audience Recommendation

If I were to sum up Kantara: Chapter 1 in one line, I’d say:

It’s a majestic prequel, rich in myth and scale, that earns its strong moments at the cost of inertia in the middle.

Here’s who will love it, and who might feel it less:

• If you love folklore, mythic cinema, and spectacle, this is must-see. It’s the sort of film that benefits from a big screen, loud sound, and immersive visuals. The emotional highs are powerful, especially if you invest in its world early on.
• If you prefer lean storytelling, tight pacing, minimal side plots, you might find parts of it frustrating. The first half asks for patience; the stakes rise gradually, but some of the build-up isn’t as taut as it could have been.
• Fans of the original Kantara will appreciate how this deepens the mythos, explains origins, and tries to honor the spiritual and cultural grounding of its predecessor. But if your expectations are of the same freshness, there may be moments of disappointment.

Rating

If I gave stars out of 5, it lands around 3.5 to 4. It’s impressive in vision and ambition, beautiful in many parts, but not flawless. For many, the final 30–45 minutes will feel worth the journey; for others, the slow middle will test the commitment.

Closing Thought

Kantara: Chapter 1 is not content to be just another epic. It wants to carry the weight of tradition, myth, belief — to remind us of stories older than kingdoms, of the land, the spirits, the pacts that bind people to place. It doesn’t always find the perfect balance between grandeur and intimacy, but it reaches for something large and spiritual, and in many places, it lands. More than that, it invites you into an experience — where forests, rituals, and divine fury matter, where myth isn’t distant but present.

If you go in open to being moved, to feeling the pulse of ancient soil and the roar of gods, Kantara: Chapter 1 will give you something rare: a reminder that cinema, at its best, can feel sacred.