After Operation London Cafe movie review:

Director Sadagara Raghavendra's After Operation London Cafe doesn’t open with urgency; it opens with caution, almost as if the film is listening to its own heartbeat before letting us hear it. The early minutes allow the forest and its stillness to settle in, a deceptive calm that masks a world constantly rearranging itself: ideologies shifting, loyalties mutating, truths learning to camouflage, and villages being reshaped into forced commercialisation.

And everything is framed by one colour: green. Not the postcard green of the woods, but the contested green of purpose, with uniforms, ideology, and the forest itself locked in one palette. When the same shade becomes both armour and camouflage, both the system and its resistance, the film hints at a larger question: who invades whom? The provocation is sharp, but the film does not push hard enough into its own terrain.

Director: Sadagara Raghavendra

Cast: Kaveesh Shetty, Megha Shetty, B Suresha, Ashwini Chavare, Shivani Surve, Virat Madake, Arjun Kapikad, Krishna Hebbale, and Ninasam Ashwath

We first see Keshav (Kaveesh Shetty, who also wrote the film) as he is shot by an elderly man in broad daylight, moments after stepping out of jail. It is a jolt that flings the narrative backward into a Naxal camp and their frequent encounters with police and villagers, where the film finally builds momentum. What follows is a dense, sometimes breathless stretch of humiliation, injustice, rumour, and public shaming.

Between a rescue near the forest lake and ideological skirmishes echoing through the camp, Bhavya (Megha Shetty) finds herself drawn to Keshav. The romance aims to make danger its poetry, but the writing stays within predictable emotional zones, unwilling to disturb the film’s political ground.

The story tightens when Syed, a commanding officer, enters the forest grid. His arrival corners the rebels and exposes fractures within the group. The film’s protagonist emerges as a man torn between conviction and exhaustion. Here the question arises: when does a soldier become a traitor? This is where the big reveal lands: Keshav was once Shourya, an army officer. It is a twist that should have ignited the film’s moral core, but the second half loses its edge. Tensions flatten, scenes repeat emotional patterns, and the film slips into a simpler mould of love, jealousy, and revenge instead of deepening its ideological conflict.

The craft stays steady. The forests are filmed as psychological landscapes, with RD Nagarjun capturing nature at its best, with rivers and trees that seem capable of swallowing secrets whole. Virat Madake and Suresha B, among others, make a strong presence within the Naxal ensemble. Megha Shetty brings much-needed lightness to a grim narrative. Kaveesh Shetty’s physical presence is striking, especially in action sequences choreographed by Vikram Mor, whose style blends seamlessly with the actor. Prashun Jha contributes a lively layer of songs that punctuate the tense forest environment, while Sadagara Raghavendra directs with a careful eye on mood, character, and tension.

And then comes the quietest issue. The title never fully lands. The book Operation London Cafe appears only in the final moments, a gesture toward a larger story the film is not yet ready to tell. The ending hints at a prequel, suggesting that what we have just watched is merely the middle chapter.

After Operation London Cafe is rich in ideas but uneven in how it chases them. It is ambitious in thought and cautious in execution. It sparks debate and questions and leaves you with the sense that the film’s most compelling chapter is perhaps the one still waiting to be told.