Slight variations on a familiar tune can often trick us into assuming that we are listening to something fresh. Abhilash Joshiy’s debut directorial King of Kotha, written by Abhilash N. Chandran survives on such variations to the familiar tropes, from a long line of gangster films, with some of these being delightful and some others just falling flat. The delightful ones — the rivalry and the evolving relationships between two close friends turned foes (the driving force of the film) — take the cake, while there are quite a few contenders for the latter.
Just like in most such films, Kotha Raju (Dulquer Salmaan), the protagonist, who is not averse to extreme violence, is against drug trafficking. But here, it is not dictated by some lofty personal principle, but by his girlfriend Tara’s (Aishwarya Lekshmi) aversion to drugs. Predictably, the question of whether the gang should deal in drugs becomes the cause of a rift between Raju and his best friend Kannan (Shabeer Kallarakkal, who memorably played ‘Dancing Rose’ in Sarpatta Parambarai).
We see Kotha’s present through the eyes of police officer Shahul Hassan (Prasanna Kumar), and its past through the recollections of his subordinate. The larger-than-life stories of Raju still lords over the landscape, now ruled by Kannan Bhai. In a cinematic equivalent of the movie’s pre-release hype, Joshiy and Chandran fill the screen with bits and pieces to play up Raju’s legend, before unleashing him on screen. And, just like how the movie pans out, although Raju stands tall, he does not exactly set the screen on fire, which can be partly attributed to the writing. The punch lines land with a whimper than a bang.
