Dulquer Salmaan is literally screaming at the top of his lungs in a dimly lit, smoke-choked dressing room while a wooden prop table is completely smashed to tiny pieces against the wall right next to his head and he looks exhausted, sweaty, and completely unhinged.

Look, Kaantha is wild, okay.

Before all that yelling, the movie starts way back in a bygone era of cinema, making it stand out among other typical bollywood movies released lately, because we meet our main guy trying to make it big in the glamorous yet cutthroat world of acting.

Dulquer Salmaan plays this insanely passionate aspiring artist who is just struggling day in and day out, dodging rent, eating cheap chai and biscuits, and honestly, his wardrobe consists of this one genuinely hideous mustard-yellow knitted sweater with a moth hole right on the left shoulder that stays there through three different time jumps, which is just hilarious.

Bhagyashri Borse enters the picture looking like an absolute vision, playing a major starlet who catches his eye on a crowded, dusty studio lot where background extras are constantly dropping film reels and shouting at each other.

They have this instant chemistry that totally works, and their romance blossoms through a bunch of stolen glances, lingering touches behind canvas flats, and dramatic rain scenes that probably soaked every single prop master on set.

And then boom, Rana Daggubati shows up as this massive, intimidating studio boss with slicked-back hair and a booming voice that makes everyone in the room immediately stop breathing, and he owns half the industry, controls every single marquee in the city, and has zero patience for newcomers trying to steal the spotlight.

Things get complicated so fast because Rana's character wants Bhagyashri's character all to himself as his primary onscreen leading lady and offscreen trophy, creating this suffocating web of professional jealousy, broken promises, and dark industry secrets.

Our boy Dulquer gets cast in a supporting role just to keep a roof over his head, but he has to watch the love of his life slowly slip away into the clutches of the powerful studio system ruled by Rana.

We get hit with the interval block right when the tension is peaking, specifically during a massive studio anniversary party where giant chandeliers are swinging, champagne is spilling everywhere, and Dulquer walks in uninvited, confronts Rana right in front of all the high-society gossip columnists, and slaps him across the face before a brass band accidentally starts playing a super upbeat dance number that completely ruins the dramatic mood in the most awkward way possible.

Honestly, the song placement in this movie is nuts because coming right off a brutal public humiliation, we are forced to watch a ten-minute technicolor musical sequence where everyone is wearing neon pink fringe and dancing around a fake cardboard moon.

After the break, the plot accelerates into total madness because Dulquer gets blacklisted from every single production house in the country, and he's forced to take sketchy gigs dubbing for low-budget action flicks while drinking cheap whiskey in a cramped apartment with peeling wallpaper.

Bhagyashri tries to secretly meet him behind a dilapidated warehouse to hand him a bag of cash and a train ticket out of the state, whispering, you have to leave before they destroy you for good, but Rana’s goons are already waiting in the shadows with wooden bats and bad attitudes.

A massive chase sequence breaks out through the narrow, laundry-strewn alleys of the old film district, with film canisters rolling under car tires and desperate shouts echoing off corrugated tin roofs.

Rana steps out of a vintage black sedan, calmly lighting a match, watching the chaos unfold with a cold, dead-eyed stare that tells you he has zero remorse for crushing dreams.

Dulquer gets cornered against a brick wall near an abandoned projection booth, and instead of giving up, he lunges forward with a rusted iron pipe, swinging wildly at the bodyguards while screaming out all the pent-up frustration of every struggling actor who ever got chewed up and spit out by the machine.

During the scuffle, Rana pulls out a vintage revolver, aims it straight at Dulquer's chest, and pulls the trigger just as Bhagyashri throws herself in front of the bullet, taking the hit right through her shoulder and collapsing onto the dusty concrete floor in a spreading pool of dark crimson blood.

Dulquer drops the pipe, falls to his knees, cradles her bleeding body in his arms while crying hysterically, and looks up directly at Rana, who simply drops the smoking gun onto the pavement, turns around without saying a single word, and gets back into his car, which drives away into the dark rainy night while the camera slowly pulls up into the sky, leaving the screen completely black.