Kantara Chapter 1 Review

Kantara Chapter 1 (2025) Movie: What's Behind

Rishab Shetty's Kantara Chapter 1 is releasing on 2 October 2025. Expectations are high on the project as it is the prequel to the hit film Kantara. The film's Telugu version has been promoted by top stars Prabhas, NTR and Pawan Kalyan. Kantara Chapter 1 OTT rights have been acquired for a fancy sum by Amazon Prime Video. The streaming will be commencing once the completion of its theatrical run. Let us findout what magic Kantara Chapter 1 wove on movie lovers. 

Kantara Chapter 1 (2025) Movie: Story Review

Kantara Chapter 1 is the prequel to the blockbuster film Kantara. Kantara Chapter 1 story revolves around the tribals who live in forest who worship nature as God and goes allout to protect from others who try to snatch the hidden resources. The tribals in Kantara believe that if they cross the border, ghost (Bhoota) punishes them and similar the people of Bangra dare not to enter Kantara region for the fear of their lives due to a curse.

When Berme (Rishab Shetty) from Kantara decides to break the rule and enter into Bangra, whose King Rajasekhar (Jayaram) anoints his son Kulasekhara (Gulshan Devaiah) as the king, things change drastically with the princess Kanakavathi (Rukmini Vasanth) showing her prowess. Where this leads to and what are the mystic elements involved, and what are the hidden secrets deep inside the Kantara forest, form the crux of the twists and turns.

Kantara Chapter 1 (2025) Movie: Artists Review

Rishab Shetty breathed soul and life in the character. He continued from where he left and acted as if he was possessed. Especially in the Guliga Deva scenes his performance reached the peaks and leaves all stunned. The character is similar to the one he played in Kantara where all the talk untouchablity, oppression and others. He delivered dialogues with ease and his screenpresence made an impact.

Rukmini Vasanth played her part to perfection. She oozed with glamor as the princess and carried herself gracefully. Her character comes with a twist to surprise all. Jayaram is good in the role of the king and made his presence felt on the screen.

Gulshan Deviah played an important role. However his role fails to connect chords with the viewers and infact impacted the tempo in the narration. Others performed according to their roles.

Kantara Chapter 1 (2025) Movie: Technicians Review

Kantara Chapter 1 story is penned by Rishab Shetty himself. He starts from where he left in Kantara and takes viewers into the narration highlighting the Kadamba and  Bhangra dynasties and tribes and their rivalries. He takes his own time in introducing various characters and as the story progresses, the scenes involving Gulshan Deviah and other characters slows the pace of the film. Infact these scenes endup irritating the viewers and testing their patience to the core. But once the narration gets into the story, the screenplay picks up pace and the intense action sequences gives goosebumps. The chairot fight is one such sequence and it brings a perfect end to the first half setting the tone for the action packed second half.

The action picks up in the second half and the elevations to Rishab Shetty gives goosebumps to the viewers. However the war scenes shot resembles that of Baahubali, RRR and even the saree sequence reminds one of Pushpa. But the pre climax and climax takes the narration to another level highlighting the rich traditional values and rituals and beliefs among the tribals and also God warning that those who tries to break the peace and harmony will never go unpunished. But the fight featuring Rishab and Rukmini seems to have been rushed and it would have been better had it been for few more minutes.

Rishab Shetty concentrated on highlighting the traditions and rituals of the tribals and most of the time he succeeded but at times he overdid the famous Guliga cry many times and also showed various characters also doing the same, diluting the imact and intensity levels. The convenient and convoluted screenplay ended up confusing the viewers. At the same time, there are many predictable elements that played spoilsport. He ended the film with a lead to the next part with Kantara -Chapter 2-Legends.

The songs tuned by Ajaneesh Lokanath are situational and couple of devotional songs like Brahmakalasha makes a terrific impact. He with his background score managed to give goosebumps to few scenes. He elevated the scenes with his thumping background music which formed the soul of the film.

Arvind S Kashyap's cinematography is of top class. He showed the forests of Kantara and the nature in a visually rich and appealing manner. He captured the scenic loations giving a natural and realistic feel to the viewers. Most of the time the visual effects and graphics are fine but at times they are underwhelming. The editing of Suresh Mallaiah left a lot to be desired. There are many scenes that repeated and dragged the pace of the narration. Many scenes looked forced and more than 20-30 minutes could have been trimmed for better impact. Dialogues are fine but could have been more powerful and production values are good.

Kantara Chapter 1 - Advantages

• Rishabh Shetty
• VFX and BGM
• Cinematography
• Few Action Sequences

Kantara Chapter 1 = Disadvantages

• Forced Scenes
• Convulted Narration
• Duration

Kantara Chapter 1 (2025) Movie: Rating Analysis

Altogether, Kantara Chapter 1 turns out to be predictable divine entertainer. Rishab Shetty came up with intense and stellar performance and his screenpresence is impactful. As the director, his story had predictable elements and the slow pace in the narration, covoluted screenplay diluted the intensity levels. Few interesting twists and turns in the script and doing way with unnecessary forced sequences and more powerful character arcs would have powered the film to another level. Considering all these aspects, Cinejosh goes with a 2.75 rating for Kantara Chapter 1.