King of Kotha Movie Review

It’s that time of the decade where every actor out there wants a massy gangster film to his name, and this time, it is Dulquer Salmaan who finds himself King of Kotha – a gangster drama set in the period of 1980 to 1998. The film directed by Abhilash Joshiy takes a laid back approach towards telling its tale, and somewhat succeeds in giving us a good film to watch.

King of Kotha takes place in the land of Kotha, where Shahul (Prasanna) comes in as a police officer who is sent to nab down the dreaded gangster Kannan Bhai (Shabeer), who is responsible for the big drug menace in the society. Shahul finds out that Kannan has been close friends with Raju (Dulquer), a lovable gangster in the past who left the city citing reasons of love failure and a friend betraying him. Shahul plots a plan for the return of Raju as the King of Kotha, to set things right.

The good thing about the film is that Dulquer is an actor who can entirely hold the weight of the film on his shoulders and take it forward, and he also gains momentum from the BGM by Jakes Bejoy which is simply terrific.

However, King of Kotha suffers from a predictable and draggy screenplay which runs for closer to 3 hours. While the first half is quite crisp except for the love portions with Aishwarya Lekshmi, the second half has a slow go at the proceedings and except for some very well shot fight sequences, the film does not offer any twists or surprises in the story. It does feel like director Abhilash Joshiy could have insued some good twists and turns into the story with his writing, instead of just banking on his making skills and the technicalities.

Of course, Nimish Ravi’s cinematography is top notch for the entirety of the film and there is hardly anything to say negatively about the other departments such as the music, the stunt work or the editing. However, the film could have definitely been trimmed down by 30 minutes as the never ending second half feels too long to hold on for the film’s content.

Apart from Dulquer’s highly effective performance, Nyla Usha makes a mark while Shabeer is okay even though the team could have opted for a bigger name as the antagonist which would have helped it better. On the whole, King of Kotha is a watchable gangster drama that keeps it going thanks to Dulquer’s presence and the music.  King Of Kotha Movie Review by Team Only Kollywood

Verdict: A long yet decent gangster drama that shines thanks to Dulquer’s one man show!