Kabzaa

I had a terrible time sitting through this random mish-mash of utterly nonsense sequence of unrelated poorly made scenes. In a time when renaissance is happening in the Kannada film world to restore is glorious past, this expands a new low standard. And this is not experimental failure. It is some people's jealously and FOMO about KGF vision and trying to latch on the the wave. But with want intention, I fail to understand.

This movie made me understand the foundations of a cinema - Story, Screenplay, Direction & Editing. This movie forgets about all these, it is non-existent and then sets on to make some crappy dark visual scenes and then try to stich them to make some utterly non-sensical crap. And all the art sets and BGM is left over unused stuff from KGF crammed in last minute unbaked effort to give some bang. No cohesiveness, utterly garbage. I literally cannot even objectively criticize any specific aspects. It is that bad. WTF!!! Seriously. This is one of the most horrible movies I have seen.

The only positives (which can be utilized properly in a different movie) are Shriya Saran and Kiccha Sudeeps's voiceover.

Note : I'm not critics or movie reviewer just telling my opinion because I'm so dissapointed.

Just ruinnig the vibes of kgf. Everything in this movie is look alikes Kgf movie even the main character looks, dressup and attitude. But too much low on content . Story is too poor. I am just tired of watching same kind of movie AGAIN AND AGAIN AGAIN AND AGAIN AGAIN AND AGAIN . Movie acchi ho sakta tha if they shouldn't try to copy the kgf movie. I didn't like the movie because they ruin the vibe of rocky bhai and the whole kgf movie with poor content. I will give 4 star out of 10 . Big big dissapoint.

Kabzaa (2023) : Movie Review -

R. Chandru's ambitious action drama, Kabzaa, brings three superstars together: Upendra, Kichcha Sudeep, and Shiva Rajkumar. The biggest is, of course, Upendra Sir, who has defined Kannada cinema with some of his pathbreaking works way before anyone would have imagined it. I am a fan of that Upendra sir, not this. R. Chandru's Magnus opus has no head and no tail. Action, loud BGM, and grandeur-that's all there is to it, and it's totally intolerable. What an absolute waste of time, money, and talent. Just because KGF did wonders at the Indian box office doesn't mean that Sandalwood should have tried to make another one of it and forgotten about itself. KGF is not even in top 10 best films in the last 5-6 years from Kannada cinema, forget in the decade or all-time. Then who had this silly notion that one could try to replicate it with different superstars and directors? Kabzaa is not KGF, but it is a wannabe KGF. While doing so, it did not become either one.

Kabzaa Part 1 kicks off in the pre-independence era with the child of a freedom fighter, Arkeshwara, living with his mother and brother. Soon India gets independence, and the next thing you know, you are in the 1970s with the adult version of Arkeshwara, played by Upendra. He is an Air Force soldier now, but he is forced to join the dark world of the Underworld as his brother is killed by a powerful gangster. To take revenge for his brother's death, Arkeshwara kills the local gangster and becomes a sort of protector, a big-time gangster in Amarapur. Madhumati (Shriya Saran) marries Arkeshwara against her father's wishes, who is a political giant. Arkeshwara's fear spread way up North, and the biggest of gangsters are now after him, alongside a strong cop, Bhargava Bakshi (Kichcha Sundeep). There is a surprise element in the climax, but you'll have to wait for part two for that (including Bhargava's full-fledged role).

Written by R. Chandru alone, Kabzaa is a terrible script for today's era. The conflicts are so old that even your grandpa will call them outdated for his era. And don't ask about logic, because there isn't any. From where it begins to where it ends, there is no connect to it. Kabzaa proves how scattered a screenplay can be. With those overdramatic pauses, irritating blackouts, constant knockout moments, and what not, Kabzaa tests your patience every minute for two long hours. Who'd expect a romance during this black massacre? But Kabzaa has it. Who'd expect twists from the 1950s? Kabzaa got them. An over-elevated action becomes boring in the first quarter only, but then you have to endure it for the next three quarters. Poor you, you just need a mobile and good internet to have some distraction as a moment of relief.

I am still confused about whether or not we should talk about performances, as this is not a performance-driven film at all. You'll see a lot of acting in "UI" from Upendra, but Kabzaa is not the same tonic. He gets into the mass action zone, and a very hardcore one; if that pleases you, then you are lucky. But don't expect anything else. Kichcha has a small role, and he's mostly a narrator, so let's wait for his performance in the second part. Shriya Saran looks gorgeous in her traditional avatar and dances well on one song, and that's the best you get to see. Those pauses for dated dialogue could have killed me without any weapon. Murali Sharma, Nawab Khan, John Kokken, Tahaa Shah, Pramod Shetty, and others are there only to deliver the dialogue in a typical accent and show machoism.

Coming back to loud background music, I guess the Kannada audience has some good ears for them. I remember visiting an ear specialist right after KGF 2 FDFS, and Kabzaa almost had me in the same zone. I still don't know what "loud BGM" means. Does it indicate aggression, expression, or anything else? The cinematography captures good frames of big-screen grandeur, which is indeed big for Sandalwood. As mentioned above, dialogues are too cheesy to digest in 2023. R. Chandru's direction is extremely hardcore and is only and only focused on larger-than-life commercial filmmaking, and that's far from logical and intelligent cinema. Kabzaa makes you uncomfortable and leaves you restless to leave the auditorium, unless you enjoy such mindless masala flicks. Even commercial cinema is changing nowadays, so you better be aware of what's good and what's crap. Kabzaa isn't the former, for sure.

RATING - 3/10*

I am proud kannada who love and support all kannada movies. But this movie I need to talk because it not only destroying the reputation built by KGF, Kantara or Charlie but also no creativity at all. Even I know to copy paste something. KGF was successful because of the storyline and how he sequenced the scenes with thriller action and goosebumps and on the later sage the set design and color grading was done. What I believe is this fellow hired KGF starts and asked them how was set done and based on those inputs he did a worst move ever. And Upendra sir who wants to run our karnataka must have overseen this disaster, but supported it anyway. Please don't show movies to other states and destroy reputation build by others.

Only bgm in the movie. No story nothing 😒. Director told that he is inspired by kgf movie . But the whole movie is like mini kgf with bad VFX. No mass dialogues in the movie. Only fighting . Very disappointed about movie. My request for director R Chandru is please don't do part 2. U will b loss. Second thing is hero. Upendra is not suitable for that mass part. And no emotion nothing. Only shooting blood etc. And final climax is also Rolex copy. Movie is a creative thing. Director should think creatively not copying from others. He should learn this. Don't go for this movie. U will get headache. This is my first review. Very disappointed 😞