Indian God Father — Rocky of KGF
Mass Madness Of KGF Chapter 2
I couldn’t help but visualize Prashant Neel’s reaction to seeing The Godfather for the first time. Wherever he grew up, I’d want to question him about the impact the movie’s climax had on him when he watched it in what I believe to be an old theater. This must have been Prashanth’s pivotal moment in life, his metamorphosis where he not only learned the magic of cinema but also the concept of “mass” before it became a thing, similar to the classic theater scene. There is no one else in this room who thinks in intercuts the way this man does, without sounding overly theatrical. Something must have clicked in him.
This is relevant to the 1951 image that KGF begins with. Not only is this the precise moment that a significant gold find occurs, but it is also the location of an even more significant event: the birth of Rocky (Yash, rocking!). The first movie uses a lot of intercuts to give the impression that an epic is unfolding, but the second movie amplifies this effect even more.
Start watching the scene shortly before the intermission, where a wounded Rocky is losing his powers. He doesn’t seem the same man he once was, and it appears that he fled his realm after losing a conflict.
Your intuition from thousands of previous mass movies warns you that a significant event is about to occur.
However, K.G.F: Chapter 2 does not intend to be unpredictable. Instead, it challenges you to create the largest scene you’ve ever seen for a scenario you’ve (accurately) predicted, then it challenges you to double it. Rocky quickly takes a Kalashnikov and decides to call it a “Khalaasnikov,” emphasizing the significance of “Khalaas” (completed) in the name.
Then, in a masterfully crafted epic scene, the entire friggin West Coast of India is captured in a hail of gunfire. Even though your ears are bleeding a little, you don’t mind. The feeling of satisfaction is so intense that it seems like all of life’s issues are being solved instantly.
Even the larger moments take too long to unfold, even if you are confident that the payoffs to which everything is leading up are being set up. But until then, it seems to be a series of lengthy opening scenes, each with forced dialogue that makes a punchy noise. The writing of the Preethi (Srinidhi Shetty) character also doesn’t help. Although the movie’s use of a Ravanan-like character (Rocky) holding his Sita (Preeti) hostage in an unfamiliar land is evident, the character lacked sufficient development. She looks like a friend-of-a-friend at a function, and you see her all the time with nothing much to do.
But with a large movie like this, a lackluster first half is one of the finest problems you can have. It concludes on a high note, but it also gives you a sense of how large it will be when we go back to the goldfields. The monotoned visuals of Bhuvan Gowda achieve a level of consistency in this scene that the first movie lacked, to the point where you can feel the dust in your eyes.
What’s cleverer is how Rocky’s own spiral into darkness is incorporated into the film’s one huge action scene piece after another format. The outstanding score by Ravi Basrur directs this transition from a triumphant mass production to a more introspective trip.
Rocky isn’t one-dimensional though, contrary to popular belief, and with references to his drinking and fascination with more, you can see the decay of a soul that doesn’t know when to quit. In the second movie, even the way the mother’s tragedy reverberates in the second half is much more formidable. And as a result, the haughty, conceited Rocky becomes a hero in a Greek play.
How even this monster of a man manages to make you see a hungry, tearful youngster behind it all is really nothing short of a miracle. The most important parts in the movie instead use references to this fundamental emotion rather than another large-scale mass event. Because of this, K.G.F: Chapter 2 is remarkably perceptive.
In addition to having the potential to overwhelm you with wonderfully imaginative mass moments, it also has room in its enormous throbbing heart for a tale about a mother and kid who were never given the luxury of hope.
Let’s look at some moments of this blockbuster movie.
1 — Rocky’s entry
2 — Adheera’s entry
3 — The hero is defeated by the Villain and the Villain spares the Hero
4 — Bouncing back
5 — Rocky leaves the KGF
6 — Villain marches towards KGF
7 — After eliminating all the traitors, Rocky allies with Inayat Khalil
8 — Rocky’s forces eliminate Adheera’s clans
9 — Hero spares Villain
10 — Rocky kills Shetty (Bombay don who was the chief of Rocky before Rocky takes KGF)
11 — KGF backed government falls from central power and Ramika Sen becomes the PM
12 — She orders CBI to take down the Rocky
13 — Rocky retrieves it from a police station and singlehandedly brings the place down with a DShK
14 — His aides trace his biological father, a drunkard who abandoned his family, and pay the unaware man to take care of Shanti’s (Rocky’s mother) newly shifted grave.
15 — Reena confesses her feelings to Rocky and they get married.
16 — Rocky meets with Sen and hands her a file exposing his involvement in money laundering, but she cannot consider it as almost all her party members are complicit in the corruption.
17 — Adheera makes his way to K.G.F through a secret passage with Andrews, Daya, and John, supported by Khalil’s armada. Just as Reena reveals her pregnancy to Rocky, Adheera fatally snipes her.
18 — Rocky kills Adheera
19 — Rocky and his henchmen disrupt Sen’s speech at the Parliament and kill Pandian (who had staged the attack on Garuda for which Adheera was framed, and informed Adheera of Garuda’s attack priorly.
He was also the one who showed Adheera the secret passage, goaded Andrews into hiring Rocky, staged the no-confidence motion drama in Delhi, and persuaded Shetty to join forces with Khalil just to gain Rocky’s trust).
20 — End of the KGF
This film grossed around 1300 Crore INR worldwide at the Box Office. It is stunning that this film was made in Kannada Cinema and went a worldwide success with a great storyline and performance by the artists.
In the mid-credits scene, three months prior to Rocky’s death, a CIA official hands over a file listing Rocky’s crimes in the United States and 16 other nations between 1978 to 1981 to Sen. Thus, leaving the loop for the next sequel K.G.F: Chapter 3.
This is available on Amazon Prime. Go and watch it.
Thanks for reading. Share your thoughts too.
