Kesari Veer: Legends Of Somnath Movie Review: Worse Than ADIPURUSH!!!

The year 2025 isn't even halfway through yet, and we already have the worst movie. I feel like crying. What can I say? I have no words. I am speechless because when I watched it, oh my God, I can’t even tell you how many times I reacted with "Hey, hey, what are you doing?" The main actor turns into a helicopter during a sword fight! Except the story they have chosen about Somnath temple nothing is good or okay about this film.

In today’s action movies, the director and the entire production team have just one question in their minds while shooting action scenes: how epic can we make this? The old cliché of the lone hero fighting ten guys is old. Even the lone guy fighting the entire army is old news. They want to make it more difficult, so the hero fights with his eyes closed. Meaning, his family is in grave danger, and he’s like, “I’ll save them later. First, I have to kill you.” You remember those movies of Bhaijaan from about ten years ago, where during fights or even from a gust of wind, his shirt would tear and show his body? If you watch those and think, “That’s ridiculous,” it’s not really like that. Ladies and gentlemen, if you watch this movie, your respect for those old films will increase because its shirt-removal scene is ultra-pro-max epic compared to Salman Bhai’s films.

I just realised I haven’t properly introduced the movie. Its name is Kesari Veer. The IMDb rating is 8.6. The movie presents a very important chapter from history. On a serious note, it talks about when the Tughlaq Empire attacked the Somnath temple and how some brave warriors fought against them. It’s good that the makers chose such historical events to present to the people. But shouldn’t those same makers take responsibility that since they are handling such an important subject, they should try not to make a mockery of it? The runtime is 2 hours 40 minutes, and for the majority of that time, I felt that my sentiments about my country and religion were being exploited just to follow current trends, making an easily digestible film on that topic.

This movie is so bad that Akshay Kumar’s effort in Prithviraj seems like a masterpiece in comparison. I’d rather watch Arjun Kapoor again in Panipat than this. The movie has so many bizarre, random things like when they’re fighting on a mountain, the main character gets hit by an arrow, then he grabs the female lead, and both fall into a waterfall. Where did the waterfall come from? They’re in the middle of a big battle, and suddenly they get married! If you want to show such things, at least show conviction that makes it believable. The action sequences try so hard to look grand that only dust is flying, with sparks and filters added in. You can just download those effects from YouTube and add them yourself. The lighting is exactly the same. And in the name of action, the hero flips a cannon with his bare hands, a cannon on wheels! This is where you can complain about the VFX and CGI.

But the other departments of the movie are so poor that there’s no need to even reach that point. What I’m about to tell you is no joke like for real, this happened. A bullet flies, hits Suniel Shetty’s character in the stomach, and the bullet becomes half as if it hit some wall. I was like, Indian TV serials are famous for their random match cuts and Oscar-level acting, but now they have competition. In fact, I would say this is the winner. The main role is played by Sooraj Pancholi, the main villain is Vivek Oberoi, and I already mentioned Suniel Shetty. The rest are okay, but the one person on whom the whole movie is hinged appears like a wooden plank. You’d expect more emotion, but whenever he’s acting on screen, I felt dead inside. During the interval, I seriously contemplated leaving because why torture myself, but I’m glad I didn’t because there are some positive points to talk about.

And before I mention those, I want to clarify that these aren’t very positive points, but since everything else is so negative, there’s a small ray of hope. Vivek Oberoi plays the main villain, and he is a gem. Everyone else’s work was so stiff, but he was better than them in terms of acting. However, his character’s writing was such that in the first half of the movie, the hero challenges him to a running race. Vivek’s character says, “My man will run on a horse,” and even after all that, when he loses, this brutal character you were shown is beaten by some random guy. And then he just says, “Let him go, you go.” I have a whole army, and you’re alone; but still you can go. The female lead had tattoos at weird places. I seriously questioned myself whether such tattoos existed back then, because it looked like the heartbeat line on a machine or something written in a curse. If any of you know, please tell me whether it was actually like that at that time.

This movie belongs in the B-grade category or maybe even lower. Yes, in the final climactic battle, the last 5 minutes were somewhat impressive compared to the rest. When five brave warriors stand before an entire army and fight on a bridge, it genuinely looks good. But before that, the first two hours and the last 5-10 minutes are just the same old story. When you’re shooting this, don’t you realise it’s going to look comical? People will laugh and mock you. And finally, when you are choosing a topic that touches people’s sentiments, be responsible. I am not saying every time you have to make a masterpiece, but at least don’t make it this bad.

Now, how did it get an 8.6 rating? I don’t know. Maybe some people liked it. And if you are among those who easily get emotional because the movie mentions Shivji’s name five or ten times and says “Har Har Mahadev,” then good for you. They will keep making such movies, so keep watching. I am not joking when I say that of all the history-based movies I have watched so far, this is the worst, the most terrible. If I have forgotten one or two movies, I would rather watch Adipurush again. I would not even rate this movie one star out of five stars.