A couple of things wrestled for front-of-cortex space while I was watching ‘Kalki 2898 AD’: this Telugu language sci-fi film, set in, what else, 2898 AD, is the first comprehensive pan-Indian film. The trend which has been gathering force in the last few years has resulted in a cast which is drawn, literally, from all the major filmmaking centres in India, straddling Bengal and Kerala, and everything in between.
And the other was just how hard it is for Indian tent poles to have a screenplay which is tight and gripping all the way through. I can’t remember a recent film of this staggering size and scale, mounted with such ambition, being such a plod to begin with.
Pre-interval, Kalki, which happily borrows its aesthetics from all kinds of futuristic films (with flashes of Mad Max, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Lord of The Rings, and even, yes, a glimpse of the godawful Adipurush, and, of course, the Bahubali-RRR slate, showing major indebtedness to the Amar Chitra Katha universe) meanders, stops and starts, remembers that it needs to bung in a set piece here and a set piece there, and then slumps back again. Oh, and how did I forget Bladerunner, and Dune in terms of influences? The latter is an ‘inspiration’ for the film’s posters, in both image and font. Hard to believe? Check it out for yourself.
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The second half, which is clearly reserved for the big-hero-villain-confrontations, shakes things up somewhat, and saves the film from being a total snoozefest. And it redeems itself, just in the nick of time, by a rousing climax, where everyone comes out, literally, all guns blazing.
As it goes about setting the scene, doing the world-building thing, introducing us to its myriad characters, it is a hard sell. Yes, there’s Amitabh Bachchan as Ashwatthama, the mighty saviour, who has survived several ‘sadis’, from the age of the Mahabharat to ‘kaliyuga’, and the time that it is set in, where the last avatar of Vishnu is meant to appear to save the world. Talk to the hand, and also, read the Puranas, where this is a much-beloved prophecy. Of course, it is a Hindu rashtra (but then the film does say that it is inspired by the Hindu scriptures), and set in Kashi, ‘where Ma Ganga has dried up washing away our sins’, as a character puts it, so maybe that’s why there’s so much Hindu iconography, just like in the Baahubali-RRR films. But those were period films. Is this what the future holds? Ooh.
And yes, there’s Kamal Hassan as the evil Supreme Yaskin, who lords over the ‘Complex’, a utopian city which hovers over Kashi, the only liveable city left in a world gone desiccated and dry. His entourage includes Commander Manas (Saswata Chatterjee, trying hard to muster up adequate menace, and managing to hit the mark once or twice), and a curly-haired soothsayer (Anil George) who talks darkly about divine intervention and ancient weapons (behold the ‘Gandeeva dhanush’) being supercharged again.
ALSO READ | Kalki 2898 AD Movie Review box office collection day 1: Reviews call Prabhas’ film ‘next-level, like Hollywood’, it breaks RRR record
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And, of course, there’s Prabhas, as bounty hunter Bhairava, who is meant to be headlining this movie, but is to be found clowning around much more than flexing his muscles. He makes us wait, and wait, and wait, to actually hit his stride, in which he finally turns business-like, smiting the ungodly hip and thigh. Sigh.
There’s Deepika Padukone as the lab-lady SUM-80 or Sumati, in whose ‘kokh’ nestles the The One, waiting to come out and take charge. Outfitted in a very chic shaggy haircut, and a toga-like thing, she is referred to as Ma. There’s Disha Patani, who shows up to do god only knows what, and then disappears, and we forget about her even when she is on screen. There’s Shobhana as the Senior Mother, who presides over a Utopian land across the high mountains called Shambhala, where green leaves still grow. This is where the resistance to the all-powerful Supreme hides out, and this is where all roads lead to, when a rescue posse, accompanied by the spirited Kyra (Anna Ben, who lifts things up nicely even if briefly), who along with her compatriots (Pasupathy and Pasha) shows up just at the right time.
The thing is, a film of this order of magnitude, will be a sprawl. It will have a whole array of characters. That’s a given. It also has an entire phalanx of celebrity cameos which makes for several fan moments, and not much else. The challenge is to keep everything up and running, while keeping us suitably engaged. ‘Kalki’ manages to do this only post-interval, after getting us all bored and impatient in the first. The worst part are the laugh tracks– large tracts of which are given to Prabhas to shoulder– which just don’t land. I can’t say if it’s the same in the Telugu or Tamil versions, but in the Hindi version that I watched, most of the attempted humour comes off unfunny, and slows the film down. The only exception is a robot called Bujji (voiced by Keerthy Suresh), fashioned as Bhairava’s cutesy, smart-mouthed side-kick, who induces a smile.
Prabhas-starrer Kalki 2898 AD releases in theatres on June 27.
And yes, this may have Prabhas as the headliner, but it is Amitabh Bachchan all the way: his Ashwatthama is suitably gravelly and epic-like, as he sets about roundly bashing and punching poor Bhairava, in one of the best set-pieces in the film. He towers over the film, both literally and metaphorically, reminding you of the Bachchan of yore, who ‘made the line begin where he stood’. As to Kamal Haasan, he comes on sparingly, and saves his best for the last, but being Kamal Haasan, does leave an impact.
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So who’s up for the next instalment? The question is: will it waste less of our time, and commit more to its undeniable comic-book appeal?
Kalki 2898 AD movie cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Disha Patani, Saswata Chatterjee, Shobhana, Anil George, Rajendra Prasad, Pasupathy, Anna Ben, Malvika Nair, Ayaz Pasha, Keerthy Suresh
Kalki 2898 AD movie director: Nag Ashwin
Kalki 2898 AD movie rating: 2.5 stars
