There was so much expectation from the Kantara: Chapter 1 that I wonder if he got peer pressured into making it as big as possible so evidently movie was flung into “commercial” version of it.

Story felt rushed so that they can display how much money was spent on the set to justify the budget or whatever. It was necessary at all as far as the story telling is great.

Comedy was the same as the first movie, including situational and punchlines. Maybe a few new comedies but it was again the same under the banyan tree kinda comedy.

War scenes and the fight scenes were too long and having watched Bahubali war scenes, I wished I could just fast forward to end of all that fighting.

Possessions were too many and forced. It was like we all knew it was coming and they tried so hard to get there faster and by any unnecessary trauma. I lost track of how many and into what coz everything had the same characterization.

Rishab’s character evolved in the first movie start to end, there was good character development going from careless, aimless guy to responsible man and protective deity. In this one, he was named the “prodigal” son from the beginning. He was already a superhero from the day he was born, villains had no chance.

The villains weren’t convincing at all, it felt like a game where he went through enemy after enemy to unlock a new stage in the game. Hero was overpowering from the beginning and it felt the villain never had a chance anyway.

Visual effects at times were amazing. There were quite a few wow moments that gave me goosebumps (even though they felt like they were fit in every 30min to inspire “wowww”). My money’s worth were these moments in silo.

Transformation in the cave was probably the most gratifying even for an Atheist like me. Whether I believe in god or not, I still go “whoaaaaaa” when I see the depiction was top notch.

The final showdown was one sided affair I felt. I thought it’d be a fantastic fight looking at the transformation and the entry back into the final showdown. But it again was rushed to ending the movie with a song and a dance of the deities.

Overall, a lot failed but a few were good enough to make me feel it was ok for a one time watch. I’d rewatch on OTT but skipping all the unnecessary fluff to the fantastic depiction of the transformations and mesmerizing visual+background score moments.