K.G.F Chapter 1

 I know that it looks absurd to be writing about a movie that was supposedly a blockbuster commercial movie. But, believe it or not, today was the first time that I watched the full movie and I must say that it is not a movie to be categorized only along with the commercial movies. The movie K.G.F by director Prashant Neel almost broke all records of the Sandalwood film industry and had its viewers on the edge of their seats. The film is to date the highest grossing Kannada movie with a box office gain of above 250 crores. 

However, the reason I am writing this is to not bring your attention onto the movie but rather on its theme. It depicts the lives of swarms of slaves and the way they were treated. In case you never realized, slavery was not something that existed millions of years ago. It is what we were made to believe. We all see slavery as something so ancient. Indeed, it does not exist now(not with the name 'slavery' at least) but that doesn't mean that it was just an ancient hoax. The last country to abolish slavery was Mauritania, Africa and guess when they did it? In 1981. Most of ours parents would be alive at the time. 

Even though we do not know what sort of treatment slaves got, we do know that it was not the least bit pleasant. They were treated like property that was supposed to be sold and bought according to the owners' interests and once they were seen as unfit to toil and moil anymore they were either tossed into the streets to fend for themselves or killed. These atrocious doings are vividly depicted in the movie. An example is the scene where when a man injures his leg while at work, he is dragged by the injured leg and then killed by the guards. I even got into the dilemma of whether such events had actually happened at the Kolar Gold Fields, of which, thankfully, there were no mentions. It is not that slavery or its evilness is of any importance now but it is a necessity to have your facts right and not be fooled into believing a myth.

As for the movie, it is pretty good on its own considering the fact that it is the most successful Kannada movie to ever have been made. The only other thing that piqued my interest was the fact that the movie had only around 10% VFX whereas it looks like it had a lot more than that. All other muddy, blurry sequences were just camera and set adjustments. Prashant Neel has done a noticeably wonderful work in direction just like the screen writer, cameraman, actors and many of the crew have. The background score fits in well with the sequences and doesn't have to much of an exaggeration but it did sound very similar to 'The Oil' from Dunkirk. One major drawback is the fact that it almost has no drawbacks. The story line is totally predictable with the main actor facing almost a zero amount of challenges or setbacks. Apart from this unnecessary exaggerated hype for the lead, which is actually quite common in the south Indian film industries, the movie has no complaint-worthy faults and the mentioned might be eradicated in its upcoming sequel- K.G.F Chapter 2.

- Fathima Naushad