No doubt, it is a good film with extraordinary acting (esp by Rishabh Shetty and Kishore Kumar G.), cinematography, a beautiful depiction of the grassroot culture, vastness and magnificence of the forest, yet the storyline is not that strong. At certain places the movie becomes unnecessarily dragged. There was no need of repetitive double meaning jokes by Shiva's friends. Instead something should have been described regarding the importance of the deities (Panjurli and Guliga) in Mythology. Its a minimum expectation when those two are the core characters around which the story revolves. Also some fight scenes could have been shortened. The roar of the deities was so frequent that after certain time it lost its charm.
The story could have been made much gripping when you compare with movies such as Tumbaad, Aayirathil Oruvan, Avane Srimannarayana, Rangitaranga, Ratsasana or even Karthikeya 2. Or not so far such as The Kashmir Files, which shook the entire nation to its core. For a person, who has watched all these masterpieces, Kantara is a normal movie with 3.5 or max 4 stars.