I thought I’d seen it all in Hindi cinema until I saw *this* movie. I realized then that I’d seen nothing at all. Nothing about the violent law of the jungle as it is portrayed in this story dripping with so much blood and gore, I literally had to look away several times as the cold-blooded slaughter of ordinary people took place with scythes, daggers, knives, and guns of every kind. This is one heck of a motion picture, and it isn’t for the faint-hearted. It is not your standard Bollywood masala-movie by any stretch of the imagination, and you watch it at your own risk of becoming mildly nauseated to utterly stunned at the constant blood-letting every which where you look. And it isn’t only the murders that take place with mathematical and clock-like precision, it is also the literal heavy-handedness in how the men treat their women.
So intense in violence is this political saga in the heart of a rural setting in the southern part of India that you wonder if this is how it is everywhere in the country. The story is as fast-paced as it can get, the characters are spine-chilling in their persona and delivery, and the background music and cinematography is absolutely brilliant. There are no good-looking people singing in the rain or looking forlorn at the clouds. This is raw revenge that is sought time and time again in such Shakespearian proportions that there is no escaping the fear and utter despair that comes from a life like this. Is there hope for change? I don’t know. But I hear there’s a Part II to this story, so I can only hope that there will be hope!
