Kantara is truly a film rooted in its culture and originality. The film has sent ripples across world cinema with its technical expertise and the entertainment factor. But if you have watched the film you will wonder what happens in the end. Is Shiva dead or alive? Or, will he return back to save the forests from anyone who threatens it? Here’s the explanation.

Kantara Ending Explained

When the people of the village and Shiva realize that the real trouble is the landlord, the village prepares itself for one final battle against the casteist landlord and his army of goons. In terms of arms and ammunition, the villagers are no match to the landlord’s army. Women, children — the landlord’s men spare none. Even Shiva is choked and killed.

Shiva is soon resurrected again by the demi-god Panjurli, who possesses him, bestowing him with superhuman powers — in a moment that sent goosebumps to everyone in the cinema hall. Shiva in the form of the demigod Panjurli, annihilates the landlord and his men, restoring the balance back. The cop played by Kishore, who at first appeared to be a villain in the first half, is now on the villager’s side.

However, Shiva, now the new conduit for the demi-god, hears the shriek of his ancestor from the forest goes and merges with the forest — similarly dissolving into a circle of fire. His lover, now pregnant, becomes aware that Shiva might perhaps never return back unless there’s a threat to the forest once again from greedy landlords or his offspring would be the new protector for the people in the human form.

Will he ever return? Not really. He has transcended the human form and is now purely in service to the forest deities or so to say the diety. In one of the most stunning sequences, before dissolving into the forest, the demi-god takes everyone’s hands, including the cop’s and officer’s, and places them on his chest, thus encouraging them to always work together in harmony with the forest, and not challenging the component (forest) which only truly belongs to Panjurli Daiva.

A truly Indian way, of blending folklore with mythology, to show us that it is futile thinking on the part of us humans to believe that we can ever own nature?

There might be a part 2 for Kantara about which Rishab Shetty has only given clues and has not spoken much.