Bollywood is no match for India’s new wave cinema

The signature motif of “Kantara: A Legend— Chapterl,” India’s second-biggest box-office success of 2025, is a primordial scream.

- Andy Mukherjee, Tribune News Service

It may as well be the sound of old Bollywood in its death throes, or the birth pangs of a new industry.“Kantara,” described by its writer-director Rishab Shetty as “faith, culture, and devotion in all its glory,” isn’t standard Bollywood fare. For one thing, the film wasn’t made in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital. Nor is it targeted primarily at a Hindi-speaking audience.

Filmedin Kannada, a southern Indian language spoken by more than 50 million people, the story is about a mysterious forest — and the preternatural forces that reside in it. The overall experience is a bit like “The Northman,” except that the Viking legends have been replaced by homegrown deities and an animistic tradition of spirit worship that has spawned an art form. When they aren't fighting a greedy landlord, forest dwellers dress up in colorful costumes and exotic headgear and enter a trance through their dance. That’s when they let out their bloodcurdling screams.