Kolar Gold Fields have been the most notorious gold mining areas in the history of Indian politics ever. The gold from these mines has been most desired by people and that led to many power battles by criminals to own the place until Government almost fought a war. The film narrates that story with Rocky as the epi-centre of it all. But does it do well in narrating? Does it have enough substance to be three chapters as makers announced?
Plot: Ramakrishna Pawan a.k.a Rocky (Yash) is born in 1951 to an young girl (Roopa Rayappa) of age 15 and by the time he is 10, she dies of lung cancer. She asks him to not die like her and be a criminal if it needs to be, but die powerful and wealthy.
He goes to Bombay as a kid and starts being brutally power hungry to make a name. He wants to come under his feet and is determined so much so that he doesn’t care dying in the process. He comes to Bangalore following a gold trail and opportunity. But his ascend is not simple and he has capture the richest gold mines to rule the crime world. How he started to do so, is the plot.
Performances: Yash as an actor developed so much that his screen presence is enough to carry a film on his shoulders. He doesn’t need too much support from director but his efforts to convince us off being monster gangster needed Prasanth Neel’s dedicated team.
Srinidhi Shetty doesn’t have much to do. Vashistha Simha is used very little but he seems to have bigger role in next chaptet. Roopa Rayappa is convincing as young mother.
Srinivasa Murthy, Ananth Nag, Achut Kumar are delightful to watch on screen. They perform their roles well too.
Technicalities: Shrikanth as an editor had the most difficult job is keeping the pace of action episodes intact and also adhere to the narrative demands of the director. He did a good job.
Ravi Basrur is a major plus. His music, BGM and sound design work as gold for the movie.
Shivakumar’s art work to bring all the visuals alive and create such art pieces is commendable. He made all the setting looking believable with so much jump in time.
Bhuvan Gowda’s efforts to deliver compelling visuals are visible right from the first frame. He experiments too much but delivers at every point.
Prashanth Neel as a narrator prefers non-linear story telling and that is visible here. He made it look like a heroic tale filled with heroic action episodes until he brought the emotions into it. He made it look an ascendance of a pure human being in an evil world with crooked intentions. Rocky is pure in his ambition and that makes him fear none. But he should have not made the entire film look like collection of action episodes.
Analysis: With a simple premise of one man ascending to ultimate power in royal rumble of scumsters and gangsters, the team has been able to show the crude reality behind Kolar Gold Fields and how power hungry people destroyed the human spirit to rule the world with enormous wealth. While the intentions are there to be original and fresh with a premise like narrator jumping to new timelines and jumping between timelines, the entire film looks like a collection of action episodes and elevations to actor.
Still it has enough craft to bring it all alive and make it all worthwhile for our ticket money. Mostly the Kolar Gold Field episode out of all has the emotional core to explore and director delivered it very well, there. He leaves us with a hope for bigger action set pieces but with more emotions and heart than just craft. Hope he delivers then. For now, in a crowded weekend he takes the cake!
Rating: 2.5/5
