'Kantara' celebrates toxic masculinity, says filmmaker Anand Gandhi

Mumbai: As the sensational Kannada movie 'Kantara' gets pan Indian fame, it is often compared by the critics to the Bollywood film 'Tumbadd' released in 2018, which has similar tone and mood, and received much praise alike. The creative director of the latter movie, Anand Gandhi, said that unlike his movie, 'Kantara' celebrates toxic masculinity and narrow-mindedness.

Filmmaker-producer Anand Gandhi, is known for his films like 'Ship of Theseus' and 'An Insignificant Man'.

'Tumbbad' and Kantara share quite a few things in common such as both are rooted in folk tales, have been breakout hits that nobody really expected and present a story from particular regions of the states of Maharashtra ('Tumbbad') and Karnataka ('Kantara'). But despite these similarities, Anand feels that the two films are largely different in their tone and the message that they wish to convey.

On his Twitter handle on Saturday, Anand, wrote: "Kantara is nothing like Tumbbad. My idea behind Tumbbad was to use the horror as an allegory of toxic masculinity and parochialism. Kantara is a celebration of these."

However, the comment made by Gandhi has stirred a debate on Twitter.

A netizen pointed out the difference between the two films from another perspective as they wrote: "Kantara depicts the journey from debauchery to enlightenment, the nativism playing an enabling role. Tumbbad is the exact opposite, a glorification of debauchery and stereotyping of the natives. You're right, Kantara is nothing like Tumbbad."

To which Anand replied by tweeting, "Your perspective is making me think. Thank you for sharing it."

Vasan Bala, the director of the hit streaming movie 'Monica, O My Darling', too jumped in on the debate as he mentioned that 'Tumbbad' was originally director Rahi Anil Barve's idea inferring that Anand was falsely claiming the ownership of the idea. Quoting Anand's tweet, Vasan wrote: "Tumbbad' was Rahi's idea, that apart haan point taken."

Kantara, which is dubbed and released to four Indian languages other than Kannada viz. Telugu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam has made more than 400 crore at the box office.

-IANS Inputs