Kantara

Synopsis

The movie shows the culture of Kambla and Bhootha Kola. The story starts with a king who has everything a happy family, money, and power but the king wanted Peace. He prays in temples and worships to seek peace. He decides to search for peace alone and on the way King meets some trible people and gives some of his forest lands to the local tribespeople in exchange for peace and happiness granted by Daiva. Although the Daiva agrees, the tribespeople warns the king that the family of the Daiva would follow the deity and any attempt to go back on the word will incur the wrath of Panjurli’s companion, the Guliga Daiva. In 1970, the king’s successor gets consumed by greed and demands during the Bhoota Kola festival that the tribespeople gives the land back and warns them that he will go to court. However, the successor dies a mysterious death a few months later, vomiting blood, on the steps of the Court, as predicted by Panjurli. In 1990, Muralidhar is a forest officer tasked with converting that land into a forest reserve. He is challenged by Shiva, a Kambala athlete from Kaadubettu. Shiva is backed by his patron and the village’s landlord, Devendra Suttooru, who is the king’s successor in the present day. Murali and his staff start erecting a fence along the earmarked forest reserve. Shiva’s girlfriend, Leela is a newly recruited forest guard in Murali’s staff. Shiva and the villagers try to stop the fence from being erected but the police and forest guards brutally suppress them and erect it. Meanwhile, Shiva is asked to perform the Bhoota Kola, but he refuses as he had witnessed his father disappear forever while performing the Kola ritual. While visiting the forest with Devendra at night, Shiva witnesses the deity that always occurs in his dreams. Shiva runs away afraid, followed by Devendra. Murali decides to arrest Shiva and his friends and heads to their hideout along with Devendra’s henchman, Sudhakara. However, Shiva and his friends go into hiding. They are later captured and imprisoned. When Shiva’s cousin Guruva requests Devendra to release Shiva, the latter tells him to make the villagers believe that Daiva wants them to sell their land to Devendra. Guruva refuses due to which Devendra kills him. It is revealed that Devendra wanted to seek vengeance against the Daiva and the villagers for killing his father and he also wants the villagers to hand over their land to him. Devendra learns that Murali has decided to take action against him for his illegal ways of acquiring land from the villagers, due to which, Devendra decides to kill Murali. Having learned about Guruva’s death, Shiva meets Devendra, who lies about Murali being Guruva’s killer. Enraged, Shiva heads to kill Murali, but learns from his friend Mahadeva, the blacksmith, that Devendra himself is Guruva’s killer. Shiva is attacked by Devendra’s henchmen, Kumara, and others, but manages to escape. After Murali tells Shiva about Devendra’s deceptive actions in acquiring the land, Shiva meets the villagers and reveals that it was Devendra who killed Guruva. Devendra and his henchmen attack the village where an intense battle ensues. Shiva gets killed, but Guliga Daiva possesses him and decapitates Devendra and his henchmen. A few months after the battle, Shiva performs the Bhoota Kola in which he is possessed by the Panjurli Daiva. He makes Murali and the villagers join hands in a symbolic gesture and disappear into the forest forever (meeting his father). The film ends with Shiva and Leela’s son asking Sundara about his father’s disappearance and Sundara narrates the same, implying that the entire movie was as per Sundara’s narration.