Tall ambitions, flailing emotion

Gowtam Tinnanuri's latest has too many elements on its platter and ends up doing a disservice to its emotional core

- BH HARSH

The trailer of Kingdom, released a few days ago, had surprisingly given away many of its plot points, including one that said it is essentially a story of two long-lost brothers, and the situations that bring them back. When Soori (Vijay Deverakonda) finally meets Siva (Satyadev) after many years, it's an emotionally complex moment for the former. Soori had to find a way to catch his brother's attention, even if it meant inviting death. It's not necessarily the warm reunion Soori was hoping for, but this is how it had to pan out, and he must make peace with the bittersweet turn his journey has brought him to.

This moment lands because it arrives after a considerable buildup of Soori's yearning for Siva's presence. The issue with Kingdom is how its entire narrative depends on the landing of these complex emotional moments, which carry many layers. It's not easy to sustain such a grip on a story's emotional arc, while establishing a fictional universe with all its cogs intact and accessible. Director Gowtam Tinnanuri sadly succumbs to the pressure.

Kingdom is an ambitious failure, somewhat admirable but largely underwhelming. To be fair, there is a sleekness to Kingdom that keeps it going in the first half. It's an interesting visual language (the comparisons with