“Kantara Is A Celebration Of Toxic Masculinity, Tumbbad Used Horror As An Allegory Of It…”: Creative Director Anand Gandhi Slams Rishab Shetty’s Blockbuster
In a recent tweet, Tumbbad director Anand Gandhi took a dig at Rishab Shetty's Kantara and commented on his film's idea.Read on
Tumbbad Director Anand Gandhi Comments On Rishab Shetty’s Kantara ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
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Rishab Shetty’s Kantara has been making quite a buzz ever since it released, and for all the reasons. A large part of the audience loved the mystic forest God’s tale from a Kannada village. On the other hand, the film also received backlash from a band for using their music in Kantara’s Varaha Roopam song without having a contract on the copyright structures. Well, apart from all of these, the movie minted lot of money at the box office making it one of the biggest hits of 2022.
Now, Tumbbad director Anand Gandhi has finally watched the movie after releasing it on OTT platform and took a dig at Rishab Shetty’s director for this reason. Scroll below to get the scoop.
Anand Gandhi took to his Twitter handle and wrote, “Kantara is nothing like Tumbbad. My idea behind Tumbbad was to use the horror as an allegory of toxic masculinity and parochialism. Kantara is a celebration of these.” For the unversed, Anand made the film Tumbbad which was also a mystic horror folk lore and even though it didn’t do well at the box office, it was critically acclaimed across the nation.
Kantara is nothing like Tumbbad. My idea behind Tumbbad was to use the horror as an allegory of toxic masculinity and parochialism. Kantara is a celebration of these.
However, as soon as the Tweet went viral, netizens started to pour their reactions on the same. While a few agreed with Anand Gandhi, a major part of internet users lashed at him. One of them wrote, “Kantara isn’t liked because of its complicated story it was liked because of its relation to actual indian tulunadu culture .Which made It a film which couldn’t have been made elsewhere. So I don’t understand it when you say it has everything wrong in present india.”
Another Twitteratti penned, “Those who will understand the films will understand this as well. Your work was in a different league altogether.” One of the tweets can be read as, “Also, Tumbadd had it’s contours within Indian folklore without explicitly using any traditional devices but still felt universal as well. Kantara uses folk art as a prop, a visual gimmick and still comes across as shallow and exploitative.” Another one tweeted, “How exactly is Kantara shallow and exploitative??”
Well, it’s not the first time that Kantara faced a backlash from a director. Earlier Abhiroop Basu told ETimes, “I feel the film is a mockery of anyone’s intelligence. Poorly made, regressive, loud, replete with tropes, no real character to root for, so-called plot twists appear dishonest and merely serve as gimmicks, the protagonist’s redemption arc is laughable and by the time the film reaches the much talked about climax, I am not really interested anymore.”
What are your thoughts about Rishab Shetty‘s Kantara? Let us know in the comments!
