Watching KGF - chapter 2 was a guilty pleasure (which I think I have earned after all the wedding and work related stress I have been taking). Action based movies like KGF in India are known to (and rightly so) promote toxic masculinity. They beget and encourage violence. Women tend to hardly have a presence in such films, except to exist as the object of the hero's desire, or the villain's revenge. We have trashed this argument long enough to abhor and avoid such films which unfortunately have a mass following.
And yet. I watched this film in the theater the other day, eyes wide open and swallowing in the action packed sequences one after the other, where cars are smashed, bones are broken and blood is shed. It was almost like a dance of violence - random yet rhythmic - with ear splitting sound of machines and bullets that would give us our own Mad Max fury road. The film is a visual delight for action lovers. I had an urge to sit up and whistle when the hero Rocky (Rocking star Yash - yes that's what he is called) entered with a swag. I finished this long, 3 hour old saga feeling content. No, sedated. It was full paisa vasool - and mind you, the ticket price was steep.
My friend who watched the film with me also confessed to feeling guilty about enjoying all those mindless action scenes. But as we exchanged notes, certain points emerged that justified our interest. No really. Hear me out!
kGF Chapter 2 is the second part of an award winning superhit kannada film KGF - Kolar Gold Fields. The premise of the film is not really novel - it focuses on Rocky, a high ranking assassin who has emerged from the darkest debris of the city. Like the CBI officer says while explaining his rise as the Prime Minister ‘“he was beaten for being born, for asking for food, for resting, for raising his head. Then one day, he hit back. And now now one can beat him”
After being offered the total control of Mumbai by his employer's boss, he disguises himself as a slave-laborer in the Narachi limestone mine (Kolar Gold Fields), aiming to assassinate Garuda, the future heir of Kolar Gold Fields. Apathetic at first, Rocky is gradually moved by the inhuman conditions in which the miners operate and decides to lead a rebellion against the ruthless overseers. The film takes off when he assassinates Garuda, kills the henchmen - and assumes control over the gold mines. The second part is all about how (and if) he manages to retain his newly found power.
The first movie seems to be very patchy with so much of back and forth going on and gory scenes that people have told me they were barely able to understand the story. Unlike the other south Indian movies which combine colorful song and dance sequences and comedy in their action films, this one is spent in a dark yellow light of the gold mines and the dark red of gangster world with menacing villains and toiling slaves. There is no tenderness, no light respite, except Rocky’s occasional dry humor for his love interest. That is also inadequate, as the hero spends more time musing over the memories of his dead mother than over winning the heart of his heroine. The conventional elements of entertainment are missing in the KGF series and still it is still, somehow engaging.
Rocky is obsessed with his mother in an almost oedipal way. Her sacrifices for him when he was a child practically governs his actions as an adult. But these emotions don't make him sensitive. Or even sensible for that matter. In fact, we as an audience would never even know what is going on in dark corners of his mind. Does he care about the miners of KGF to rehabilitate them or is he using them as a means to an end? We don't know. Does he care about his heroine? Would the end be any different had he become a parent? We don't know.
Rocky in KGF seems to have transcended the binaries of good and evil. He just acts, and we have to guess what he feels. And this does not seem like a half hearted direction on the part of the film makers that makes him flat- he is complex and deep and angry - it is just that they wanted us to test the waters rather than them measuring it for us. Like my friend said wisely - let us look at him as a person, not with a perception of gender or class etc etc”. Well.
What I actually liked most about the film was that it had so much of an anti-establishment, anti -system, anti - capitalist, anti - everything themes. Nepotism is called out - in fact the premise of KGF is how an underdog offsets the age-old power balance by overthrowing the overlords and overseers of KGF. There is a mention that Rocky was able to extract more gold from the mines in just two than his earlier owners ever had in ‘n’ number of years… and this is not because the laborers increased, but just that they became more productive as labor laws were put in place.
In one scene, he burns down an entire police station (no one dies - it was only to caset fear). He does it to recover one single gold brick that the police had taken in one of their raids on his factories. The interesting part ONE is that the machine gun he uses is called ‘Badi Ma’ by the agent he sold it to, piping our heroes' interest. The interesting part TWO is a tiny kid who was serving chai to the pot bellied corrupt officers rushes out when he sees Rocky Bhai enter, knowing his wrath. He then sits back and watches the entire station burn to the ground - in glee. And while my alarm bells started ringing at the sight of a child enjoying so much of violence, there was also a sense of a tiny human from the working class watching an institution of oppression be taken down.
In another scene, Rocky blazes inside the Parliament with a machine gun to kill those who were involved in killing one of his loved ones. Again, the audacity to which they have shown the national security being compromised is terrible, and yet, who does really mind seeing politicians punished for their sins?
But my favorite scene is in Rocky's final battle with Adheera (the Vikings styled, evil most henchman of the old bosses played by Sanjay Dutt). Aheera unsheathes the old sword of Survavardhan - a weapon immensely feared by all miners for the blood bath it had ensued once upon a time. We all expect Rocky to defeat Adheera and claim the sword for himself. Something even better happens. Battered and bloodied, Rocky picks up a hammer from the ground and hacks Adheera to death, breaking the blade of the sword. The people’s hero does not need a sword to adorn him. A hammer - or I daresay a sickle - is enough.
Even if exaggerated at epic proportions, the film does talk about corruption, systemic violence and corporates and syndicates operating and exploiting the poor under the not so covert eyes of the government. The control they exercise over the miner slaves is terrible that we want to avert our eyes and yet we know how bonded labor exists in our country. All of this for gold - the symbol of power and wealth in India. Even the heroine is called Sona. And ultimately, that gold was but was an illusion - as Rocky finds out in the end. His lust for gold could not supersede things which matter more - love, honesty, loyalty, humanity. He loses to them.
The only time the movie let me down was in its still misogynistic portrayal of women. Funnily, between the only three women, only one lets us down - and that is enough to put a stain on the film. His mother is a powerful character, winning against all odds and propelling her son to these monstrous ambitions. Prime Minister Ramika Sen (Raveen Tandon) is also powerful, not just because Rocky could not crush her but because she has goals in life over and above bringing down Rocky and his KGF. The character of his heroine Sona is half baked though. She is hardly given any space - on screen and in his life and her personality pretty much revolves around hating or loving Rocky. He is unapologetic about his statements of wanting to “keep her for his entertainment” - even as he truly seems to love her. Major, major issues here.
Had the film fixed these issues here - it would have been several notches higher. And yet.