One of the high budget Sandalwood film Kabzaa is attracting the attention of all with the mass elements and impactful teasers and trailers. The star cast of Upendra, Shriya Saran, Prakash Raj, Shiva Rajkumar and Kiccha Sudeep is generating immense interest. The film directed by R. Chandru is releasing on 17 March 2023. The film's OTT rights have been acquired by Amazon prime and streaming will be after the completion of the theatrical run. Let us find out what Kabzaa offered to movie lovers.
Kabzaa story is all about how the honest life of a freedom fighter's son who is also an IAF pilot undergoes shocking changes due to various circumstances and happenings in his life. Arkeswara (Upendra), the son of a freedom fighter, who as an IAF pilot posted in Visakhapatnam, gets posted to Dehradun.
Before heading to Dehradun, he goes to meet his mother and brother in Amarapura. He meets his lover Madhumati (Shriya Saran), daughter of Raj Bahadur (Murli Sharma), who loses his kingdom and powers after Independence and who tries to get back his powers by any means.
Where this leads to how the power tangle between various forces affects the happy life of Arkeswara and how it is connected to Bhargava Bakshi (Kichcha Sudeepa) should be found on the screen.
Upendra looked macho in his role. He just enacted high-octane action sequences and there is nothing much for him to do in the film. Shriya Saran is ok in her role. It seems she lost her charm in the close angles in the looks. She however exhibited her dancing talent in a song. Fans of Shriya will be extremely disappointed seeing her in such an unattractive manner. Murli Sharma's role is ok as the king who loses his powers after India's independence.
Kichcha Sudeep played the cameo and he looked intense. Shiva Rajkumar appeared in a cameo in the climax and his presence is a treat to his fans. There are many other actors in the film and all just sport menacing looks and did not have much to do.
Kabzaa's story readied by R. Chandru seems to have been inspired by the tremendous success of KGF. The film has all the dark elements and R. Chandru stuck to the point and right from the start to finish, he showed people going berserk with all guns blazing. R.Chandru's story is nothing new and it is beaten to death and seen in many films earlier. He roped in top stars for his film from Sandalwood but with no real story and KGF shades, the cast had nothing much to do but just pass through the motions.
With a weak story and lack of emotions, R. Chandru's screenplay and direction went awry. He only glorified violence and tried to justify the murders committed by the protagonist because he was wrong and it is a bloodbath on the screen.
AJ. Shetty's cinematography is good. It elevated the scenes to another level. However, the slow motion shots are overdone and they ended up irritating viewers. Ravi Basrur's music did not make any impression. Even the background music is loud. The editing of Mahesh Reddy left many repetitive scenes. It slowed the pace of the film though the duration is just over two hours. Dialogues are just ordinary and according to commercial entertainers. Production values are good.
Altogether, Kabzaa is a poor replica of KGF. R. Chandru planned to drive the masses crazy with a high-octane mass action entertainer. However, R. Chandru's story turned out to be outdated, and beaten to death. As the story offered nothing new and extremely weak, R. Chandru loaded it with violence and tried to highlight the scenes with massive explosions, glorification, and justification of violence without any reason. His screenplay and direction failed completely and became pathetic. R. Chandru should have concentrated on the story and script before loading the film with intense action elements propagating violence. Kabzaa shows how not to make a gangster movie. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 1 Rating for Kabzaa.