King of Kotha

First, let's talk about the things I liked in KoK, since they're very few.

• 3 scenes, in all of 3 hours: For a film with an excruciating run-time of 175 minutes, only three little scenes left a mark. Two of them involve Shammi Thilakan, who absolutely towers over the rest in terms of sheer screen presence (as a retired gangster turned family man). The third is a random drinking scene featuring DQ's and Shabeer's characters, and the only one where the dialogues sounded natural and indicative of a "supposedly" deep friendship. The rest of the film is completely flat, and of the two intro scenes for DQ's Raju, the first is slightly better. Chemban Vinod, playing a funny bad guy, is also quite good.

• That kickass background score - Jakes Bejoy single-handedly tries to cover up the gaping holes in the script with a fantastic effort on the score. If there's any reason to catch this on the big screen, it is to recognize this guy and the stuff he brings to the table even for the most mediocre flicks. "People of Kotha" is great ringtone (+ workout) material indeed.

• Cinematography & colour grading - Nimish Ravi paints Kotha in shades of brown and yellow, making for some organic visual texture. The setups and backdrops for some scenes actually look better than the scenes themselves. The colour palette is beautiful, be it in a bookstore, a bar, or at a playground.

Now, let's talk about the things that put me off.

• The writing: Abhilash N Chandran, who previously penned Porinju Mariam Jose, seems way too interested in creating conflicts that even lack a basic structure. Everything and everyone in Kotha is so random. How annoying it is that even when the writing lazily spends hours trying to detail various characters, including the main protagonist and antagonist, you don't feel emotionally connected to their journeys AT ALL! There's no shock of betrayal, no thrill of revenge; plus a surprising lack of elevation moments (except for the ones mentioned in the positives). The screenplay is old wine in an old bottle!

• Performances: Take a bow, seniors! The gangster crime sagas from your generation were obviously a lot better. DQ probably gives it everything he could, but Raju isn't a character anyone emotionally attaches themselves to, and he's too much of a charmer to carry/pull off the grit of a raw, cold-blooded gangster with almost psychotic shades. Shabeer Kallarackal's Kannan Bhai boasts a peculiar (but also familiar) blend of behaviours, and even though the guy's got the look and the gangster mannerisms right, I couldn't envision him as a "final boss". Aishwarya Lekshmi is utterly wasted, while Nyla Usha makes for an interesting-but-underwritten femme fatale.

• Sluggish pacing: Okay, when the story developments are so damn predictable, why director Abhilash Joshiy chose to stretch scenes out the way he did is beyond my understanding. Several scenes in both halves bring the pace to a drastic halt, and it takes a really long while to get to that forseeable finale. The tail-end also leaves much to be desired.

• Fight choreography: Except for the climax set-piece (which apparently was re-shot), the fight sequences in KoK are really meh. Action is an area where guys like Tovino and Antony Varghese have shown promise, but DQ falls way behind on this list. He's got a long way to go before he can even get close to what his father can still manage to do at 70+. For now, I'll put the blame sorely on the choreography, as even the final set-piece looks uninspiringly rehashed from the recent John Wick films.

Conclusion - Again, one could say that the massive hype and promotions for this film made you believe something incredible was in the works (of several second-generation artists and technicians), but unfortunately, they failed to deliver.

Very glad to see a good Gangster movie was made without big Technicians ,big Artists and cameos. Really the movie took us to few decades before. Visuals are really good. Fight scenes were very realistic. The movie has only one song which was not very catchy , but background score was good.

Good to see Bike chase, car chase,more gunshots, blasts are not available in the movie.

Length of the movie could have been reduced.

Team could have added well known actors to the movie. That would have been superb.

If you are expecting more gunshots,blasts, chase, Hero's dance from the movie, then you won't like it.

But as a gangster drama, it checked all the boxes.

It is a gangster movie without big stars.

A decent one, unlike the negative reviews. I went to watch the movie with zero expectations because of the negative reviews. The movie was okay for me but not up to the hype of the movie. The main highlight of the movie is the background music, which tries to elevate the scenes to the maximum but still lacks something. Dq did good and tried to do the best he could as the king of Kotha. The color grading and some of the shots in the movie were great. The intro scene of Dq had suspense and was worth the wait.

But the interval scene or why he leaves Kotha was not convincing enough for me as it lacks a proper strong reason or the reason shown was not done well enough to make us believe that he should leave Kotha. The second intro and all that followed afterward were okay. The film had every element for a mass masala movie, a love track, some comedy, mass scenes everything, but in the almost 3-hour run time of the movie, most is basically a slow story unfolding. Some of the dialogue was clearly heavy, and some were cringe worthy. Altogether this is a one time watchable movie with inspiration from other such mass movies and a heavy John Wick inspiration in the action scene department and one might like it or not according to their preferences.

When you have Dulqeer Salmaan on screen and an ensemble cast featuring Shabeer Kallarakkal, Prassana and Aishwarya Lekshmi, expectations are high. Alas, it was a case of wrong expectations. The movie had everything going for it on the drawing board - a gangster saga, a hero who's a brilliant actor, a stylish villain but it was all unravelled by a single fatal mistake. The movie is so slow that one can sleep through it and still wouldn't have missed anything.

On the positives - The background score by Jakes Bejoy is as good as it can be.

The movie is strictly for DQ fans.

As a producer, DQ had the tools to create a cult gangster classic, he has fluffed it & he knows it.

It's a pity that Malayalam movies are being overly influenced by Tamil/Telugu films. Amongst movies from the south, Malyalam movies are held in high regards even by Bollywood for their superior stories & acting. Then you get these kind of movies that brings down the overall standard. The malayalee audience is far more cranial so they can discern quality from mass drivel. Now to talk about Dulquer Salmaan. He is a good actor in his own rights, given a good story. This kind of genre is not suited for him at all as he does not have the commanding on screen presence and physique that Mammotty has. Even with the facial beard and all he still has the urban boy soft look and not very convincing as a badass. So whilst experimenting with various roles, he should pick only ones that suits his personality. The story was kind of flat and one dimensional with no sidebar to it so it got boring after awhile. No comedy content to relieve the tension either. Due to the limited role you'll barely notice Shammi Thilakan, which is a shame. The bad guy seemed to have an unlimited stock of henchmen in his closet and that was an irritant to the watcher. The slow motion fights weren't too bad but that alone cannot hold the attention of the audience for long. The movie did not have the content to drag it for nearly 3 hours, maybe 2 hours 15 minutes at most. The ending suggested there could be a sequel, I certainly hope not, considering the first part was declared a flop.