A scene from Kalki 2898 AD
Kalki 2898 AD
Starring: Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, Disha Patani, Dulquer Salmaan
Direction: Nag Ashwin
At half time — which in itself is arithmetically equal to a feature film —the one word that keeps coming to your mind is: Really!!? What was Nag Ashwin doing, telling us an ill-married tale of sci-fi and mythology? Not a bad premise, certainly, after you decide which of the two is the principal and which is supportive. Also, for a film whose wrapping paper is all about the best technology, it is such a huge let down — even technically. The story may well not be the key factor for a film or for that matter even a novel. How well the maker runs the narrative through his lens and how true the characters seem are the challenges. Here is a challenge gone abegging.
Aerodynamics, automobile engineering, space research, cloning, and gadgets, name it and Ashwin has an inelegant vision of it all for 2998. When Vyasa meets Issac Asimov, Amitabh meets Prabhas, Deepika catches up with Shobhana, you expect sparks to fly but you end up in complete chaos in settings that are as fresh as ‘Ben Hur’ and graphics that would not best a high school-level competition.
Just before Prabhas gets a detailed dekko, a character declares: “I have heard crazy stories about your fights.” This appears an accurate summation of the film. The absurdities stick out constantly like a sore thumb. There is a ‘Shamshera’ air to the film and this is not what a creative director wants to hear or the audience want to see. The hype about the film could have secured the initial audience and, in the process, the moolah, but viewed from a cinematic angle it is decisively an effort wholly disproportionate to the end result.
The film-maker’s idea starts off with the finale at the Mahabharata: The sole surviving warrior on the Kaurava side, Ashwathama (a ‘chiranjeevi’), is cursed to suffer eternally and through generations. The Lord promises to return to Earth as Kalki and grant him salvation.
Very-fast forward, we have Commander Manas (Saswata Chatterjee) and an army of shooters, robots, and women in black at a dormitory, held captive as guinea pigs and as mechanical vehicles to carry a foetus. The experiment is not working and only one manages it — Sum 80 (Deepika). She escapes this camp and reaches Shambhala which is straight from ‘Ben Hur’: poverty, exploitation, etc., and Lady in White Mariam (Shobhana) waiting for the arrival of the Mother. Helping her accidentally is Bhairava (Prabhas) who has burnt bridges with all groups. He has had tiffs with the Commander et al, Ashwathama (Amitabh Bachchan) and everyone else. He has a super-imposed, irrelevant, ill-conceived romance with Roxie (Disha Patni). What the #$@% is all the fuss about? You may find the answer in the sequel which you may be as interested as an addict, habitual offender, or dangerously curious.
None in the crew should be proud of their work. None in the cast. While the likes of Mrunal Thakur, Kamal Hassan, Shobhana, Brahmanandam, Dulquer Salmaan and Pasupathy are wasted, Prabhas is often an ill-fitting interruption than the mainstay. AB tries hard for a while to behave like Mukesh Khanna and does add some punch to the drab, noisy, dusty, meandering proceedings.
The juxtapositioning is constantly a mismatch: from grey gadgets fighting in some desert sands to the black nightie dormitory, to Project K, with sets evoking déjà vu of ‘Baahubali’ — without relevance, to the brewing revolt in Shambhala nothing makes sense or has enough emotive flavour.
A huge yawn of three hours of indulgence by Nag Ashwin completely exploiting the naivety of a collective that is parting with exorbitant rates at the ticketing counter sums up the commercial halo and our hollow priority. Much ado about nonsense.
Starring: Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, Disha Patani, Dulquer Salmaan
Direction: Nag Ashwin
At half time — which in itself is arithmetically equal to a feature film —the one word that keeps coming to your mind is: Really!!? What was Nag Ashwin doing, telling us an ill-married tale of sci-fi and mythology? Not a bad premise, certainly, after you decide which of the two is the principal and which is supportive. Also, for a film whose wrapping paper is all about the best technology, it is such a huge let down — even technically. The story may well not be the key factor for a film or for that matter even a novel. How well the maker runs the narrative through his lens and how true the characters seem are the challenges. Here is a challenge gone abegging.
Aerodynamics, automobile engineering, space research, cloning, and gadgets, name it and Ashwin has an inelegant vision of it all for 2998. When Vyasa meets Issac Asimov, Amitabh meets Prabhas, Deepika catches up with Shobhana, you expect sparks to fly but you end up in complete chaos in settings that are as fresh as ‘Ben Hur’ and graphics that would not best a high school-level competition.
Just before Prabhas gets a detailed dekko, a character declares: “I have heard crazy stories about your fights.” This appears an accurate summation of the film. The absurdities stick out constantly like a sore thumb. There is a ‘Shamshera’ air to the film and this is not what a creative director wants to hear or the audience want to see. The hype about the film could have secured the initial audience and, in the process, the moolah, but viewed from a cinematic angle it is decisively an effort wholly disproportionate to the end result.
The film-maker’s idea starts off with the finale at the Mahabharata: The sole surviving warrior on the Kaurava side, Ashwathama (a ‘chiranjeevi’), is cursed to suffer eternally and through generations. The Lord promises to return to Earth as Kalki and grant him salvation.
Very-fast forward, we have Commander Manas (Saswata Chatterjee) and an army of shooters, robots, and women in black at a dormitory, held captive as guinea pigs and as mechanical vehicles to carry a foetus. The experiment is not working and only one manages it — Sum 80 (Deepika). She escapes this camp and reaches Shambhala which is straight from ‘Ben Hur’: poverty, exploitation, etc., and Lady in White Mariam (Shobhana) waiting for the arrival of the Mother. Helping her accidentally is Bhairava (Prabhas) who has burnt bridges with all groups. He has had tiffs with the Commander et al, Ashwathama (Amitabh Bachchan) and everyone else. He has a super-imposed, irrelevant, ill-conceived romance with Roxie (Disha Patni). What the #$@% is all the fuss about? You may find the answer in the sequel which you may be as interested as an addict, habitual offender, or dangerously curious.
None in the crew should be proud of their work. None in the cast. While the likes of Mrunal Thakur, Kamal Hassan, Shobhana, Brahmanandam, Dulquer Salmaan and Pasupathy are wasted, Prabhas is often an ill-fitting interruption than the mainstay. AB tries hard for a while to behave like Mukesh Khanna and does add some punch to the drab, noisy, dusty, meandering proceedings.
The juxtapositioning is constantly a mismatch: from grey gadgets fighting in some desert sands to the black nightie dormitory, to Project K, with sets evoking déjà vu of ‘Baahubali’ — without relevance, to the brewing revolt in Shambhala nothing makes sense or has enough emotive flavour.
A huge yawn of three hours of indulgence by Nag Ashwin completely exploiting the naivety of a collective that is parting with exorbitant rates at the ticketing counter sums up the commercial halo and our hollow priority. Much ado about nonsense.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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