Kantara vs Tumbbad: Fans jump to defence of Rishab Shetty's film after Anand Gandhi's remarks

The Ship of Theseus director Anand Gandhi criticized Rishab Shetty's film as a celebration of parochialism and toxic masculinity in his recent tweet.

Anand Gandhi's comments have set-off an interesting discourse

Kantara has continued to make the headlines but this time around, the reason might not be as impressive. Following Hindi filmmaker Anand Gandhi's scathing remarks about the Kannada film, social media has been abuzz with an intense discourse as netizens come to the defence of Kantara.

"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," wrote Gandhi in his tweet. His comments came on the back of an interesting fans-led comparison between Kantara and Tumbbad: while some did agree with Anand Gandhi that Kantara eulogized a certain kind of patriarchal central figure known to exist in cinema, others felt that his comments were slightly unfounded.

The conversation around Gandhi's tweet would only intensify (as expected) when netizens vehemently defended Rishab Shetty's film and asserted that the film deserves all the praise as it too boasts many credible aspects.

"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," wrote a user.

"The plot of the movie is one such and the character required it. You can't show him as someone who walks like a gentle cat. Have you watched Paruthiveeran?" wrote another.

Some even targeted their opinions directly at Anand Gandhi and questioned his position to deem Kantara a celebration of toxic masculinity and parochialism.

"There are some who will always remain a one movie wonder coz of their hate for others. This one tweet will end up defeating all the success that the film found in the last few years," wrote a Twitter user.

However, despite the stiff backlash from the Kantara clan, Anand Gandhi seemed more interested in gaining a perspective and even engaged in a conversation with fellow users. His statements, in the same vein, did not go unsupported as many reckoned that Tumbbad is far superior and layered compared to Kantara.

What was originally mounted as a Kannada film, Kantara grew into a massive pan-Indian success within a span of two weeks. The film would go on to collect more than Rs. 400 crores at the box office and in the same breath, also attracted diverse views from its audience. Kantara is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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