KINGDOM Review - Quite a Dethroning Work!

Ashwin Ram

Vijay Deverakonda is a Police constable who is sent to Sri Lanka for an undercover operation, where his brother Satyadev is the leader of a Gold smuggling gang, who ran away from home in his teenage after murdering their toxic father. The drama between the brothers forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:  Gautam Tinnanuri has taken a ‘Rise of the Deserving Poor over Power’ story, in which he has set the basics right. The screenplay can be distinguished as three layers and they all get the needful start in terms of establishments. The people for which the hero is going to fight for, the undercover cop path through which he reaches his destination and importantly the central character’s core sentiment which acts as the driving force that gets him there... are all solidly presented. The first hour covering the above said points is racy, tight and to the point, it feels like the hero has landed where he belongs well ahead of the halfway mark. The rest of the movie which runs for nearly two hours completely relies on the internal politics around the smuggling business. Unfortunately, the development is weak as the flow needed a lot more flavour to stay focused with the intentions. The action set pieces are flat and hence we don’t get to cheer for the hero when he wins. Plenty of plot-points are exhibited in a straightforward manner with no smartness in the narrative. The emotional bonding between the brothers work and does make an evident mark when they first meet each other, but the drama between them has no steam and is filled with familiar clichés. The situations in the progress tend to forget the end goal of the story and needlessly concentrate on blind action. The story takes place in Sri Lanka and the villain character is a Tamilian, the director was trying to make a problematic statement here but he has failed in the propaganda part as well with zero research and poor cinematic sequences. There are traces of Salaar and Retro with respect to the crucial script structure itself. Blunt writing in terms of the hero character, he is in a clueless space throughout the second half as in how to accomplish his mission, the confusion prevails amidst the audiences too. There is no closure at the end for multiple subplots, guess what we are thrown away from the cinema hall with a namesake sequel idea.

Performances:  Remarkable efforts from Vijay Deverakonda in terms of physical transformation, his screen presence is one of the key highlights of the film. Dummy role for Bhagyashri Borse, she does have an involvement in the main story, but that is it, no further development. Satyadev contributes well for the large chunk of screen space he has been offered, a couple of emotional stretches click, but sadly nothing beyond that. Nothing interesting for the villain to do as well, he just slaughters the people around him for no reason, such a single dimensional act from debutant VP Venkitesh. 

Technicalities: The technical finesse is very much there and the aspect uplifts the range of the output. Anirudh’s songs are good, be it the emotional ‘Anna Antene’ or the powerful elevation track ‘Ragile Ragile’, boy has done justice. However the soothing melody ‘Hridayam Lopala’ does not get featured in the film. Commendable background score as well, a little repetitive at times yet the music has the captivating strength. Top notch cinematography by Jomon T. John and Girish Gangadharan, flawless frames are an understatement. They both have made sure the film stays visually gripping from start to finish. The VFX team has also done their job perfectly to match with the cameramen. Some relevant insertion shots from editor Navin Nooli that helps the narrative, otherwise nothing much to appreciate. Fight sequences lack drama as it is, the punch is missing even when seen as standalone action blocks.

Bottomline

Starts promisingly with brisk establishments for several layers of the narrative unfolding organically. But in a battle between the mission assigned versus the mission destined, neither wins due to a flat and uninteresting storytelling.

Rating - 2.5/ 5