Kannappa is a bloated mess of a film that underutilises interesting story ideas, says Arjun Menon.
A mythological adventure set in Sri Kalahasthi of Tirupati, Kannappa tells the story of Thinaadu (Vishnu Manju), an atheist who stands against religious dogma and shrine worship.
The film, which relies too much on the scope of its subject matter and character moments, is undercut by shoddy VFX work and visuals.
Vishnu Manchu, who has also penned the story, has left no stone unturned to mount his dream project.
Kannappa has already gained traction for special appearances by superstars like Prabhas, Mohanlal, Akshay Kumar, Mohan Babu and Kajal Aggarwal.
These actors lend a sense of conviction to the underwritten parts and make us buy into the occasional exciting exchange of ideas. But Kannappa squanders away the goodwill of its overqualified cast list with bland cinematic storytelling.
There are warring tribes, conspiracies and jungle getaways thrown into this fantasy cocktail serving that is too pleased with its central ideas and does not labour to make them work with inspired screenwriting choices.
The rational way of thinking of a tribal warrior refusing to submit to the frenzy of deity worship only to be sent on a transcendent ‘metaphorical rebirth’ as a staunch believer is a good idea on paper. But Kannappa dabbles with cliches for too long before getting on with the story.
The first half takes too much time.
There are signposts to the emotional beats of the father-son, husband-wife dynamic but the one-note interactions and placeholder character moments do not engage beyond just informing us of the bare essentials.
There is immense money and resources at work here and you can see part of it on the screen.
Director Mukesh Kumar Singh is left with a non-committed script that jumps between ideas and has too much to say, with too little finesse.
The portions where Kannappa discovers an abandoned Shiva shrine in the forest could have used more dramatic moments in the way the emotional weight of his transformation is clocked by his actions.
But the writing is in a hurry to tick all the requisite boxes and move on to the next star cameo.
Sheldon Chau’s visuals have a washed-up, green-screen dependent look that undercuts the dramatic thrust of the material and makes everything look digital. But some of the imagery is well considered.
Stephen Devassy makes the most of the time allotted to the musical numbers and his score supplements the mood of the film well.
Sarath Kumar, Madhubala, Brahmanandam and Preity Mukundan are confined to being barely developed archetypes that jump in and out of the hero’s mythic journey.
With the Mahabharata TV series, coded (the director helmed an iteration) aesthetics and glossy, colour-saturated visuals that feel odd at times, and you can sense no formal control over the material.
Prabhas, as the mysterious Rudra, gets to spout some of the film’s key spiritual ideas; he walks away with the best-written stretches of the film.
Akshay Kumar and Kajal Aggarwal, playing Lord Shiva and Parvati respectively, look great on screen.
Mohanlal gets a briefer appearance that he makes memorable.
But Kannappa is not about any of these stars; it’s a strong mission statement from the leading man, Vishnu Manchu, who delivers the goods and is effective as the mystic cypher meant to be a spiritual icon, more than an actual person.
The journey of a non-believing tribal man to a devout Shiva obsessive is the basic story of Kannappa.
The way the film goes about exploring this line is both beguiling and exhausting.
Though the final film does not come together as seamlessly as he would have liked it, there is a uniform vision to the whole enterprise; unfortunately, it needed more refining and drafts in the pre-production stage itself.
It’s good to see artists betting on themselves and putting out their work with the best possible technical infrastructure but one wishes that the execution matched the intent.
Kannappa Review Rediff Rating:
