Shankar’s Suriya-Straight-historic fantasy film Kanguva was a promise to deliver a visual feast against the historical fantasy setting through action scenes and state-of-the-art visual effects. One couldn’t help but wonder if it delivered whatever was expected of it. Had it disappointed or was it a magnificent show?
Kanguva was made with a budget nearly touching 300 crores which was supposed to be an eye treat with fantastic cast and excellent visual effects. Here’s one that is a floppage and know that something has gone wrong, if there are mixed reviews, and box office results indicate success. A pretty stunning cinematography gave it the accolades it deserved, though this movie had a pretty cheap plot and character development. The length of the movie made it a very long time event, while the unevenness of its pace did not even make the breath-taking visuals worth it.
Having pan-India ambitions, Kanguva had much to do about its massive ₹300 cr budget and visually stunning frames. The sinking story of the film and flat plot twists restricted its widespread popularity even when it did great in many parts, especially in Tamil. Though the film had positive reviews at the very beginning in Hindi-speaking regions, it failed to totally exploit its spectacle toward becoming a considerable pan-India blockbuster.
The visuals of the film were breathtaking, no doubt, but the main problem was that it had so much content and spilled over much onto sheer spectacle. Kanguva had deep ideas to be explored and an interesting historical context, but it was more indulgent in dazzling action scenes and visuals rather than winning a compelling story. Because of this imbalance, what could have been a great story was reduced to several flashy set pieces, leaving the spectator without involvement in the characters and less interest in the plot.
Kanguva distinctly encapsulates the thin line of an entertaining film versus just a visual spectacle. It did an excellent job at visually striking content, but it cannot emotionally involve its audience. An evident inability to strike a balance between spectacle and content draws attention to the very serious problem with today’s cinema, where style often takes precedence over the complexity of narrative.
Summing up, Kanguva is even a visually impressive film with pretty good cinematographic imagination. Still, it remains rather below par in terms of producing a really remarkable film. It does not manage to make a strong impact due to too much show rather than substance. What is more, after all, such a phenomenon of images alone cannot do enough to make a movie without a powerful story developing them.
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