King of Kotha Review: A textbook template gangster film with Dulquer’s mass presence and not many thrills

After entertaining the Telugu audience and getting loads of love from them, here comes another awaited film from Dulquer Salmaan, King of Kotha.

Preface:

After entertaining the Telugu audience and getting loads of love from them, here comes another awaited film from Dulquer Salmaan, King of Kotha. KOK is not a straight Telugu film but dubbed from Malayalam, but it has enough craze and expectations from the Telugu audience with the kind of stuff he is delivering.

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King of Kotha, written and directed by Abhilash Joshiy, is produced by Dulquer Salmaan himself under the banner of Wayfarer Films in association with Zee Studios. The film stars Aishwarya Lekshmi as the female lead, and Anikha Surendran is seen in an important role.

Story:

King of Kotha is the story about Kotha Rajendran, aka Raju, from the region of Kotha, which is run by gangsters rather than the government. Raju keeps Kotha under his control and runs the city’s administration perfectly along with his friend Kanna without any illegal work happening in the city. He makes Kotha free from drugs as a gift to his lover, Tara. But Raju leaves Kotha one day after getting betrayed by his close ones. Raju returns to Kotha again after a decade to set everything right and get Kotha completely free from drugs and gangs.

Review:

King of Kotha opens in the 1990s and runs for almost 20 minutes in the city for the world’s setup. And then it shifts to the 1980s with a narrative to introduce Dulquer Salmaan as Raju, the moment we have been waiting for already after a stretched introduction. Abhilash should have paced up this introduction since neither the hero nor his conflict are running late into action. The rest of the first half is totally a flashback episode where Raju, his family, his friends, and his girlfriend are explored. It is quite good to see Abhilash focusing enough time on emotions rather than just sticking to action in this gangster film.

There is no scope for romance and comedy in King of Kotha, but the emotions had a great space. The football episode was so nicely shot. Raju’s emotions towards his father, sister, and best friend Kannan are also well written. But at some point, these episodes look overstretched. The betrayal episode is also fine, but the reason for Raju leaving Kotha should have been handled better. The second half is all about Raju protecting his family and Kotha from the antagonist. The second half gets a lot of action, but unfortunately not a thrilling one. This leads to a lack of interest from the viewer’s side. All they look for is some pace in the screenplay, which director Abhilash never delivered. The climax episode was shot well again, leaving a path for the sequel.

Abhilash Joshiy took the textbook template of gangster dramas to write the story of the King of Kotha. The film is so good in terms of the story, setup, and plots. But where Abhilash lost his path was in making the screenplay a gripping one. The screenplay of King of Kotha looks very regular, with a series of sequences, and is not very engaging anywhere. Moreover, Abhilash drilled another hole in this kind of film by making the screenplay much more stretched. Abhilash should have opted for some thrills in this gangster drama. On the other hand, Abhilash did a satisfactory job with his direction. Mainly, the world and setup of Kotha in the 1980s and 1990s offer a good outing for gangster movie lovers. Also, Abhilash did a splendid job of bringing out the mass shades of Dulquer Salmaan in a stylish way.

The technical standards of the King of Kotha are superior in all terms. Nimish Ravi’s cinematography and Nimesh Thanoor’s production design are special mentions. A football game in the first half of the film and the climax action episode were shot top-notch by Nimish. Editor Shyam Sashidharan is also good with his work in a few individual sequences, but he failed in the overall impact.

Jakes Bejoy’s background score is the best highlight in the film, on par with Dulquer Salmaan’s performance. His score is the sole reason to let us have some interest in watching the film pass by in all the lag episodes.

Dulquer Salmaan has delivered another mass performance, like the one we witnessed in Kurup, but this time DQ nailed the action part in style. DQ brought both energy and swag in his body language to the screen in King of Kotha. Dulquer surely offers a mass treat to his fans with this film.

Aishwarya Lekshmi got a good role, which has enough presence on screen but not much scope for performance. Shabeer, who played Kannan, is the standout actor in the film next to DQ. He is a great fit in both shades of his character. Anikha Surendran is just a part of the cast as Dulquer’s sister in the film. Nyla Usha will surely attract everyone in the negative shades. Vinod Jose’s English slang will produce a few laughs.

Endnote:

King of Kotha is one of the hundreds of gangster movies you watched all these years with the textbook template. There are not many thrills, for sure. All you can enjoy is some great-shot action and the best-presented Dulquer Salmaan in a mass avatar.

– Saki