KGF Chapter 1
| Yash | As | Raja Krishnappa Bairya "Rocky" |
| Srinidhi Shetty | As | Reena Desai |
| Achyuth Kumar | As | Gurudpandiyan |
| Malavika Avinash | As | Deepa Hegde |
| Anant Nag | As | Anand Ingalagi |
| Dinesh Mangalore | As | Shetty |
| Vasishta N. Simha | As | Kamal |
| Ayyappa P. Sharma | As | Vanaram |
| Ramachandra Raju | As | Garuda |
| Archana Jois | As | Rocky's Mother |
| Anmol Vijay | As | Young "Rocky" |
With a larger-than-life character, director Prashanth Neel's K.G.F. - Chapter 1 is a period drama depicting the hero's journey from being a downtrodden to the most "powerful" and dreaded man in town.
Set in 1981 and going back and forth in time, it is Rocky's tale, narrated from a journalist's point of view who had chronicled his life from 1951. How he metamorphosed from a timid boy to an ambitious teenager to a fearless gangster, forms the crux of this tale.
Released in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu, the film has all the trappings of a South Indian potboiler inclusive of stop motion, freeze frame, over-the-top action sequences and melodrama.
The performances of every actor are praiseworthy but with tight close-ups and mid-shots the camera stops us from getting emotionally connected to them. Yash's endurance, strife and sincerity thus get projected as perfunctory. His dialogues, with blockbuster dramatic lines are noteworthy. He hits the right notes when he says, "If you think I am bad, I am your dad!"
With intense atmospheric lighting, every frame in the film looks aesthetic and natural. Brilliant cinematography and equally challenging action sequences are put together with razor-sharp edits. They give the film a racy pace.
The songs mesh seamlessly in to the narrative especially the song, Gali, Gali, picturised on Mouni Roy. It is a remix from Tridev and is astutely choreographed. The background score during the climax and end too seems like one borrowed from Salman Khan's Sultan. Its rising notes drum up the emotions, "that powerful people come from powerful place".
On the flip side, there are a few mismatched dialogues delivered by the children in the mining town which are not in sync with the setting. The snappy edits with parallel cuts, though interesting make the viewing a bit disorienting. Also, the narrative packed with montages laid over on a voice track makes the film appear more passive than active.
Yash starrer KGF Chapter 1 is a 2018 Kannada-language period action film written and directed by Prashanth Neel. The movie revolves around Rocky, a young man, who seeks power and wealth in order to fulfill a promise to his dying mother. His quest takes him to Mumbai, where he gets involved with the notorious gold mafia. Other than south superstar Yash, the KGF cast includes Srinidhi Shetty, Vasishta N. Simha, Achyuth Kumar, Malavika Avinash in pivotal roles. Here is everything you need to know about the KGF box office collection.
KGF Box Office collection
According to a report by Business Today, the Yash starrer film, which is the most expensive Kannada movie ever made until now. The KGF budget is slated to be Rs 80 crores and the action-thriller flick managed to soar at the box office because of positive word of mouth. The film released on December 21, 2018, and the film's Hindi version earned Rs 21.45 crore in its first week, Rs 11.50 crore in the second week, and Rs 7.44 crore in the third week at the domestic box office. KGF has also managed to earn Rs 1.61 crore in its fourth weekend, therefore taking its overall Hindi version collections to Rs 42 crore.
The action film made full use of the holiday on December 25 and thanks to increased viewership, the film surpassed the Rs 100 crore mark in terms of worldwide collections within less than a week of its release. KGF earnings touched the Rs 250 crores mark within 50 days of its release and have become the highest-grossing Kannada movie to ever hit screens. It was premiered in more than 100 theatres in 50 locations overseas and became the fastest Kannada film to cross $200k and $300k in the United States box office. Apart from the USA, the film collected £22,656 in the United Kingdom, $9,539 in New Zealand, and RM 11,406 in Malaysia, to collect a cumulative $1.5 million dollar overseas.
It’s all very well to want to repeat a Baahubali, but filmmakers aspiring for that kind of scale must know this: at the core of every great epic is heart. It scores above everything else, including effective performances, great visuals, rousing music and direction.
That way, KGF: Chapter 1 tries a little too hard. The film has a solid story line. A young orphan grows up to become a don who seeks his place in the world. Helping him retain his moral core and propelling him towards greatness are nuggets of advice handed out by his mother who died young. But, KGF: Chapter 1 fails to tap into the emotional side of the characters. That effectively prevents you from buying into why the characters behave the way they do.
The film is structured in such a way that Yash (well-chiselled, suitably grim) is present through the film but hardly has 15 minutes of talking to do. His valour and strength are narrated by others, and when it gets a bit much, you’re reminded of the original instruction rookie writers are given: Show, don’t tell.
The film opens with the country’s Prime Minister announcing in 1981 that she’s sending the Army to capture India’s worst criminal. And then, you see Yash’s silhouette. You’re told the Government has banned a book written on him by journalist Anand and the entire stock is burnt; one survives, and the film is about the author speaking about the man whose story was never told.
Veteran Anant Nag plays Anand, who recites poetry from his book and page numbers by rote, nearly four decades after it was banned. Listening to him is hotshot journalist Deepa (Malavika Avinash) who initially gives him half an hour, but is listening even as the end credits roll.
Young orphan Ramakrishna heads to Bombay from Karnataka, polishes shoes for a living and slowly grows up the ranks of the city’s underworld to become don Rocky. He gets a chance to make Bombay his, if he finishes some work in Bangalore. In between, he meets a girl (Srinidhi Shetty) and sets out to the place after which the film is named. His brief is to vanquish the enemy, but he also ends up empowering 20,000 workers.
There are scenes with great potential. In one, which also sees the heroine falling for him, Rocky stops the car in the middle of a road and helps a woman with a child pick up her bag and a bun that’s rolled off. He begins speaking about how he could buy a bun only after polishing eight pairs of shoes and how a mother is the biggest warrior of them all, and even as you wait to see if you’ll get glimpses of a tortured childhood, the scene cuts to the heroine melting for his actions.
This, after a typical hero-heroine introduction in the middle of the road (again!), where she has stalled traffic so she can party with her friends. He fights her goons, she’s miffed, but he thinks she’s lucky he’s fallen for her. “Congratulations, I love you,” he says. “How dare you,’ she replies. “How fair you,” he retorts, even as you wince. Elsewhere, the misogyny in the dialogues continue. Men are told to wear bangles twice. Rocky is dared to touch the girl in front of everyone; he does not, and the girl’s face falls. Sigh. You expect more from a film that supposedly celebrates the mother as warrior.
The film ambles around in Bombay and Bangalore (with even a club song, featuring Tamannaah Bhatia) till it moves to the actual theatre of war – Kolar Gold Fields.
Tighter editing (Srikanth) would have smoothened out the kinks. About 20,000 labourers are enslaved and made to dig out gold from the giving mines by antagonist Garuda (Ramachandra) and his henchmen. Girls are killed the minute they are born – this is a brutal place. The boys grow up seeing those blind with age get killed, and live in hope of the saviour the storyteller (another worker who narrates stories to keep their hunger away) promises them.
The action sequences by Anbariv are beautifully executed and performed by Yash; the interval block and the fight deep inside the mines using torches and a red-hot rod are poetic. Of course, there’s gore too, and human sacrifice. But, like Rocky’s mother told him, if you inspire a 1000 people who stand behind you, you can conquer the world. How Rocky did it will probably be the big reveal of Part 2, even if it’s not a question on the lines of ‘Why did Kattappa kill Baahubali’.
Music by Ravi Barsur is soothing and inspiring in turn, while cinematography by Bhuvan Gowda is suitably panoramic. Credit to art director Shivakumar for bringing alive the grime and heat of the gold mines. The costume department slips up, though, and in the midst of the 80s wide collar, you suddenly have clothes that would feel right at home in 2018.
This film begins in 1951 and narrates the story till the 1980s. Part two will hopefully capture the gold rush and the quest for power too. So, who will take over the empire that Suryavardhan (the man who operated the mines, enslaved people, and told the world it was a limestone quarry) built and parcelled off among five people?
Just one question. What’s the possibility of two totally different films – one in Kannada and another in Tamil (Maari 2) releasing on the same day having a similar dialogue. “If you think you're bad, I'm your dad.”
They say money makes the world go round; gold’s effect is not any different. KGF Chapter 1 is one such story of greed and redemption. At the heart of it is Kolar Gold Fields, which as per the film came into existence in the early 1950s. As the Cold War between the USA and USSR pushed up the prices of gold, atrocities – including slavery – were perpetrated at the gold fields to ratchet up the gold production.
Rocky (played by Yash) is the product of this environment. An orphan, he grows up to be a monster who will murder for gain. He promised his dying mother that he would be a rich man someday and he intends to keep this promise. At an age when other children are playing hide and seek, Rocky is bumping off members of rival gangs in Mumbai’s underworld.
Now the story starts from the district Kolar on1951s and in this district, there was found the gold palace but the Suryavardhan has murder all the officers and he becomes the King of Kolar but the same time in Kolar The Hero of K.G.F. movie is bourn and his name is Rockey but some people of Kolar called "Rockey Bhai".
- Yash as Raja "Rocky Bhai" Krishnappa Bhairya
- Anmol Vijay as young Rocky
- Srinidhi Shetty as Reena Desai
- Archana Jois as Shanthamma, Rocky's mother
- Anant Nag as Anand Ingalagi
- Ashok Sharma as young Anand Ingalagi
- Ramesh Indira as Suryavardhan
- Ramachandra Raju as Garuda
- Vinay Bidappa as Virat
- Laxman as Rajendra Desai
- Vasishta N. Simha as Kamal
- Achyuth Kumar as Guru Pandian
- B. S. Avinash as Andrews
- Tharak Ponnappa as Daya, Andrews' aide
- Dinesh Mangaluru as Shetty
- Harish Rai as Khasim, Shetty's aide and Rocky's confidante
- Balakrishna as Inayat Khalil
- T. S. Nagabharana as the owner of television news channel 24/News
- Malavika Avinash as Deepa Hegde, the chief editor of 24/News
- Govinda Gowda as a peon at 24/News
- Mohan Juneja as Nagaraju, an informer to Ingalagi
- Ayyappa P. Sharma as Vanaram, commander for KGF
- John Kokken as John, an overseer at KGF
- Puneeth Rudranag as Rugga, an overseer at mines
- Neenasam Ashwath as Kulkarni
- B. Suresha as Vittal, a slave at KGF
- T. N. Srinivas Murthy as Narayan, a slave at KGF
- Lakshmipathi as Kencha, a slave at KGF, the storyteller
- Roopa Rayappa as Shanthi, a slave at KGF
- Sampath Maitreya as Shanti's Husband
- Yashwant Shetty
- Shambavi Venkatesh
- Tamannaah as Milky in a special appearance for an item number "Jokae"
- Mouni Roy as Lucy in special appearance for an item number "Gali Gali"
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