King of Kotha Cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Nyla Usha, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Anikha Surendran, Shabeer Kallarakkal, Prasanna, Gokul Suresh, Chemban Vinod Jose, Ritika Singh, Soubin Shahir
King of Kotha Crew:
Written by Abhilash N. Chandran
Cinematography by Nimish Ravi
Music by Jakes Bejoy & Shaan Rahman
Edited by Uma Sankar Setapathy
Directed by Abhilash Joshiy
Produced by Dulquer Salmaan and Zee Studios
King of Kotha Movie Rating: 2/5
Dulquer Salmaan has come up with a gangster drama King of Kotha. He has produced the film himself and Abhilash Joshiy directed the film. King of Kotha is an attempt from Dulquer Salmaan at Pan-India market. Aishwarya Lekshmi, Nyla Usha have been cast in the film along with Anika Surendran. Prasanna and Shabeer kind of Tamil actors have been cast in important roles too. Jakes Bejoy music has become popular too. Movie released on 24th August, worldwide. Let’s discuss about King of Kotha, now.
King of Kotha Plot:
In a fictional town of Kotha, Khanna(Shabeer Kallarakkal) under his mafia grip called K-gang. Newly appointed CI Shahul Hassan(Prasanna) is known for his strict determination to end the crime netwoks in the town he takes charge. He threatens Khanna to stop his activities immediately. In return, Khanna threatens Shahul saying that he will target his pregnant wife and unborn child. Shahul unable to take the humiliation, asks local boy SI Tony(Gokul Suresh) about the right eye of Khanna. Tony tells him that Khanna has become King of Kotha now but actual King is Raju(Dulquer Salmaan). Ten years from that time, Raju grows as a local thug just like his father Kotha Ravi. His mother dislikes that aspect and she stops talking to him. Even she doesn’t allow his sister to talk to him. As King of Kotha, he has a gang of friends and the closest of all is Khanna.
Raju falls in love with Tara(Aishwarya Lekshmi) and she accepts his advances unwillingly. When her boy friend, a journalist from Mumbai arrives, she tries to elope with him. Raju’s enemy Ranjith(Chemban Vinod Jose) gang finds them and keeps her in captive. Raju destroys the gang and feels betrayed by her. He starts loosing his hold on Kotha. Raju for Tara doesn’t allow any kind of drugs being sold in the town. As he lost interest in being King of Kotha, Khanna tries to bring them back. Raju beats him black and blue burns the drugs. Khanna falls in the love with Ranjith’s girlfriend Manju(Nyla Usha) and marries her. Both of them run most feared K-gang. Raju goes to UP and becomes an assassin Raju Madrassi. Now, Shahul plans to bring him back to Kotha and entice him into battle for power in the town. Will Raju come back to Kotha? Will he become King of Kotha again? Watch the movie to know more.
King of Kotha Analysis:
Dulquer Salmaan is one of the outstanding performers of Indian Cinema. He has established himself with films like Mahanati, Sita Ramam, Chup, O Kadhal Kanmani along with Malayalam films like Ustaad Hotel, Bangalore Days, Vikramadithyan, Kurup, Kammatipaadam. Like his father Mammootty, Dulquer Salmaan has also established himself firmly as a star and an actor. Now, he has come up with King of Kotha, in his own production Wayfarer films. The actor has a very likeable presence and he has proven it in his films already. Similarly, in King of Kotha, as Raju, he did give his best. He looked slim in earlier portions as Raju and bulked up for older-age portions. While he did his best, the script did not really help him in getting his teeth into the character.
The scenes of King of Kotha seem to celebrate being mediocre and even dished out everything in tried and tested manner. Nothing is really pushed to give us different characters or fresh character arcs. The things just seem completely generic. Vada Chennai plot points, KGF style narrative, High motion frames, stylish production design and glossy looking frames cannot substitute for substance. Khanna obsessing over a woman and Raju being clean-hearted yet a gangster, cruel person don’t really have teeth more than the description. Throughout King of Kotha, we see people walking into and out-off frames in style but the substance doesn’t really intrigue us. Few sequences feel like they have been dragged to death due to the narrative pace.
Abhilash Joshiy relied heavily on his stylish frames. Nimish Ravi frames have been well-planned and well-executed. The writing by Abhilash N. Chandran needed to have more depth than just tried and tested plot points. Even the execution did not really bring everything into place. King of Kotha has actors like Nyla Usha, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Anikha Surendran, Shabeer Kallarakkal, Prasanna, Gokul Suresh, Chemban Vinod Jose but none of them got any characters to really back them. James Bejoy background score is good but that did not really help the film. While they all have given good enough performances, we cannot really remember any dialogue or any scene with them in it. Ritika Singh cameo and Soubin Shahir cameo did not really add to the experience. King of Kotha with such an ensemble cast could have been a movie to remember. But fails to live upto the expectations.
King of Kotha Positives:
Dulquer Salmaan performance
Stylish Cinematography
Few Action sequences
Jakes Bejoy BGM
King of Kotha Negatives:
Predictable Gangster Drama
Lack of strong character arcs
Too Lethargic writing
Draggy pacing
Over-the-top narrative
King of Kotha Movie Bottom-line: Drags everything too much!
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