Kalki 2898-AD

Buckle up for a roller-coaster ride through cinematic chaos! The story idea is an absolute gem, brimming with potential, and the characters are nothing short of a casting director's dream-each one brimming with pizzazz and personality. But alas, their development seems to have been left in the microwave a bit too long, coming out half-baked.

The screenplay? It's flatter than a week-old soda. Though, I must admit, it does have its fizz in a few key moments, like the interval and the climax.

Dialogues? Let's just say they won't be winning any literary awards.

Now, onto the comedy-it's the kind that instead of tickling your funny bone, it goes straight for the jugular, and not in a good way. The world-building feels like it was put together with duct tape and imagination, lacking the immersive magic we hoped for.

But let's talk about the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, who is stellar as always.

Prabhas gives it his all, bless his heart.

Kamal Hassan makes a brief yet dazzling appearance, hinting at more brilliance in the next instalment.

Saswata Chatterjee? He brings his A-game, no doubt about it.

Deepika Padukone looks fine and delivers a decent performance, and her Telugu dubbing is better than that in the trailer.

Disha Patani is scorching enough to set the screen on fire in her limited screen time.

The rest of the cast, including Pashupati, Shobhana and Rajendra Prasad put in decent efforts. However, the film is sprinkled with cameos like confetti at a surprise party-most of which are more of a head-scratcher than a treat.

The action scenes? They're as disappointing as a soggy French fry.

Cinematography is serviceable, background music hits the right notes, but the songs miss the mark.

Production values are respectable, but direction sails somewhere in the middling seas of mediocrity.

Some VFX are eye-poppingly good, though.

Overall, it's a mixed bag of delights and letdowns-a cinematic hotpot where the ingredients are only half-cooked. Enjoy it for what it is, but don't be surprised if you leave the theater feeling a little unsatisfied.

A unique genre, a well written story (script) & strong characters give this movie a strong start. The extravagant visuals & very detailed crisp VFX gives the audience much needed thrill.

However, one cannot forgo the resemblance of some VFX shots have with movies like Dune, Star-wars, mad max, black panther & transformers...Although huge kudos to the team for producing a movie which is equivalent to the scale of above mentioned movies.

Pros : 1. Time taken to build characters & explain world 2. Stunts, crisp bright visuals 3. Screenplay, Direction 4. Comedy Cons : 1. Music, background score is unique but doesn't give the much needed grandeur to the visuals and scenes, repeated use of same score, abruptly high background score during stunts 2. Editing especially first half.

I just watched Kalki and it's hard to express my disappointment.

First off, the movie is riddled with unnecessary comedic dialogues that feel completely out of place, especially given the supposedly intense theme. Prabhas, who is usually a powerhouse, sadly comes across as a CLOWNISH character here.

His performance is awkward and forced, making it difficult to take the film seriously. Kyra's character adds little value, with most of her screen time dedicated to pointless talks that drag the narrative down. The entire movie feels like it's overdoing everything-be it the action sequences, emotional moments, or the supposed "comedy," which is jarringly out of sync with the rest of the movie.

Kamal Haasan, despite being a legendary actor, has almost no role or screen presence. It feels like they used his name just to draw audiences, with no real contribution from him on-screen.

Additionally, the set-up blatantly borrows from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) but fails miserably to capture the essence of the original. In the end, Kalki is a poorly executed, overhyped mess.

This one is a hard pass.

Its very tricky to do justice to a big story in time limits of a regular movie but this does have that balance in first released part.

Good: Some key flashback context like combat b/w arjun & Karn were spot on , Story is gripping, Visuals are amazing.

Thing that can be better : Prabhas in first part , maybe they could have gone with usual dubbing of Sharad kelkar in Hindi , though time is given to build character in first half but apart from Amitabh Ji no one is able to justice to it and create connect that why first half seems boring at least in Hindi. Action is there in 1st half as well but its some thing once might want to skip but in 2nd Half you don't want to miss it.

Overall its a good blend of Indian mythology with Starwars+Scifi post apocalyptic movie.

What totally went over my head : Prabhas transition from Kal Bhairava to Karna.

Right off the bat, I will say that the plot was superbly established, it made you feel the stakes. The main storyline originates from the Mahabharata so the creators really needed to push the boundaries on the execution, which I can say that they did but were they able to pull it off extraordinarily or were there shortcomings? Read on to find out.

I have attempted to break down my thoughts of each major field without giving any spoilers or too much negative connotations.

Dialogues:

Not much to say about these, they are what you would expect from a sci-fi flick (some hi-fi English vocabulary paired with the modern Hindi), and the archaic style Hindi (Sanksritised) that is generally seen in the adaptations of Hindu epics.

Characters:

I am sorry to say but the chemistry between is Bhairava & Bujji was almost non-existent. They did talk about stuff other than bounties and work but the final result was too many puns and attempts to make the audience laugh which left nothing to be established between them.

The portrayal of Prabhas' character got a bit tiresome at the start. The interactions between Bhairava and anyone were very, very boring. Apart from that, he wasn't exactly a formidable force either, and so wasn't Ashwatthama.

I genuinely feel that the creator didn't give any character the power that they deserved. For instance, Ashwatthama's powers are bound to the plot, they only work in last resorts. Bhairava does godlike damage as a human. "Other enemies" are literally Stormtroopers and some times really dumb.

Then, the character of Deepika Padukone. It was appropriately executed according to her and the plot, so no complaints there.

The remaining characters are nothing to write home about, nothing of that gravity as of the main 3 characters.

Story & Execution:

The start of the first half was stretched too much, with a lot of that stretched time going to Bhairava (intro & fillers). Then again, his interactions with others were extremely dull.

There were many continuity errors, like skipping somewhat essential bridging scenes and abruptly changing the theme of the scene altogether.

Apart from that, the story (pertaining to the Mahabharata) was told superbly. The flashbacks of Ashwatthama were really good (so was his character). You could really feel the high stakes throughout the movie.

So in essence, the plot was well planned out, but the execution on the character part fell a tad bit short.

VFX:

I went in with high hopes and I came out both surprised and disappointed. At some parts, the VFX was outstanding, but in some places, it was the exact opposite (like the de-aged AB looking like he came straight out of "Motu Patlu").

The bad VFX was best visible during fighting sequences and JUMPS (with some scattered across the film). I cannot stress this enough when I say that the jumps (and the flying) were very inorganic, it was so cable-y, everyone was hovering around. The film was really jump and flight heavy, and given the fact that there are humans of godly stature and a 'Chiranjeevi' involved (enemies being thrown around and protagonists jumping 20 feet), this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Cinematography:

Pretty standard, nothing too extravagant. Overall, a solid setup.

Music:

An absolute treat to the ears. I loved Ashwatthama's theme (right from the announcement). The Bhairava theme was the only thing that felt out of place (but that just might be me). Also, maybe I am nitpicking too much now, but the mixing and the abrupt change in tones across scenes affected the experience a bit. Nevertheless, the music complimented the scenes perfectly.

Influences:

As you know, this movie is inspired by the Mahabharata. I would say that the references to the epic and the sci-fi present day story were well balanced. It all made sense and after all, the essence is that of the Mahabharata's depiction.

In conclusion, the plot was extremely good, story was told really well. It however, lacked in the department of VFX and a special department named "Bhairava". So, the execution was a bit of a miss. However, even with its downsides, the intriguing story and some goosebumps moments (especially towards the end) make this a worthwhile watch!