King of Kotha (also marketed as KOK) is a Malayalam-language action thriller film directed by Abhilash Joshiy in his directorial debut and produced by Wayfarer Films and Zee Studios.

A script designed to boost DQ’s mass image falters very badly skating on thin ice of a plot. The film is a regular run of the mill gangster drama that piggybacks on a rather interesting plot that has a nice twang, but its slow paced narration is a huge letdown and is predictable most of the times. The lengthy scenes disintegrate the interest. Despite being an all out action film the proceedings are rather lame and dull. The pace of the film is very linear and dips at regular intervals despite the potential to up the ante. There are a few places where the film does try to make an impact but they are drowned in debris of rather very ordinary writing not to forget the plain dialogues. The pace of the film is very linear and dips at regular intervals despite the potential to up the ante.

Dulquer Salman the King has given it his best. His screen presence is there to see and is at ease in whatever he does. Shabeer Kallarkai is good. Prasanna is decent. Aishwarya Lekshmi is ordinary.

The film owes a lot its technical department. The production design is amazing in bringing Kotha to life. Nimish Ravi’s cinematography is a standout along with the art director. Background score by Jakes Bejoy is good. Shyam Sasidharan’s editing could have been a lot better. At just under 3 hours it’s tiring. Dialogues are average while direction is subpar.

KING OF KOTHA is watchable only for DQ !!
KING OF KOTHA – CLICHÉ !!
2.25/5
B.U.Shreesha