Kaal

'Crouching Tiger, Hiding Viewer!'

Kaal Dir- Soham Cast- Vivek Oberoi, John Abraham, Lara Dutta, Esha Deol, Vishal Malhotra, Vineet Sharma and Ajay Devgan. Written by- Soham Rating- *

Man-eating tigers are the least horrifying aspect of 'Kaal'- Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment's valiant march into Varma's world! There's a much more dangerous threat lurking in the reels of this debacle! It appears as if the whole cast is infected with a virus that induces horrendously low levels of acting! In what must be a brilliant achievement- Soham has managed to extract impossibly bad performances not only from 'specialists at bad acting' like Esha Deol and Lara Dutta, but even from the talented Vivek Oberoi and the highly gifted Ajay Devgan.

That leaves us with John Abraham. Don't worry, he's pathetic too! We are first introduced to his toned abdomen while he is running and then, shown him serenading with a python! Some gay fantasy, this! Thankfully, we are also informed that he works with the National Geographic and has a wife, Riya(Esha Deol). Krish(Johnny boy!) and Riya head off to the jungle of Orbit Park to investigate an increasing number of suspicious killings, apparently by tigers. Jungle mein mangal? Orbit(Corbett rechristened?!?) Park incidentally boasts the largest number of tigers in India. Also on their way to this tigerland are a group of city-bred animals- Dev(Vivek Oberoi), Ishika(Lara Dutta), Vishal(Vishal Malhotra) and Sajid(Kushal Punjabi). A car-breakdown and a 'mrityunjaya mantra' reciting weirdo(Vineet Sharma) later, our animals encounter the python-lover and his lover! A few more reels and a few more killings! Enter Kali Pratap Singh(Ajay Devgan), a mysterious villager who offers to help them get out of the jungle. All things aside, Ajay Devgan's entrance is a crackling scene that actually gives one the goose bumps, unlike the creepy scenes which were meant to…but never do! The time by which this bunch runs away from the jungle, a few more surprises are revealed. A good student of cinema will see the twist coming a long way before it actually does. And while that takes away from the thrill of the revelation, what hurts more is the script's sudden jumping of genres. A bad case of identity crisis- the script is unsure whether it is a thriller or a horror! So while the movie promises you a wild thriller in the first half, it resorts to the supernatural in the latter half!

The screenplay moves at a turgid pace with no significant episode in the first three-quarters of an hour. Desperate attempts at making the audiences jump from their seats result in loud guffaws. Sample this- we are led to believe that an anonymous hand is about to cause some terror to a character only to be revealed that the hand in question is the character's own! Hands down, the most stupid scene! Also stupid is Lara Dutta exercising her vocal chords in a role that she has screamed her way through! Vivek Oberoi makes more facial contortions than a constipated man while Esha Deol redefines poor acting and looks like she's straight out of a lingerie ad for a tiger-skin brassiere! The usually dependable Ajay Devgan is made to mouth lines that are far below his acting quotient. The only decent act comes from Vineet Kumar as Bagga. The sound by Dwarak Warrier is brilliant but overused to a nauseating effect.

In a nutshell, Dharma is no Varma! All the monkey-screeches, tiger-roars, owl-howls and Lara-screams add up to one excruciating visit to the cinema hall! A toddler behind me kept insisting his father to leave the theater and go home. Actually, he was voicing the sentiments of all present!

• Abhishek Bandekar

Rating- *

* Poor ** Average *** Good **** Very Good ***** Excellent

29th April, 2005

Plot Outline: Tourists Dev (Vivek Oberoi), Ishika (Lara Dutta) and two friends explore Orbit National Park, a tiger haven. They meet Wildlife experts Krish (John Abraham) and Riya (Esha Deol) who are exploring recent mysterious man-eater killings for National Geographic Channel. They are joined by Kali (Ajay Devgan) who takes up the challenge of guiding them though the mysteries of the jungle.

Comment: Kaal is pot-pourri of Ram Gopal Verma and Karan Johar's styles since Writer/Director Soham had been an assistant to both. RGV's style is visible in the thriller plot, pale ghosts and bizarre deaths. Johar didn't forget to cast SRK, this time in an Item number. The movie shares similarities with Ghost and the Darkness, Wrong Turn, etc.

There isn't much acting to see, thanks to the incoherent script and lack of room for characters to grow. Music is decent; choreography is stereotype. Jim Corbett National Park is well captured. No wonder they are facing a suit for the alleged violation of the Wildlife act.

Rating: 2/5

First Half was stretched out. And it took more than long to set a context.

Second half has some thrilling elements, but movie was missing some thing or few everywhere.

Acting was okay. At most places it was overacting and looked like directors asked for such a overacting by all characters, but at the same time I loved watching Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, Lara Dutta, Vishal Malhotra giving some good actis time to time. And I anyway loved watching these old movie starts together.

Movie was marketed and publicised as a scary movie, however that is not at all what it is.

Cons -> Unnnecessarily Stretched Long Pros -> Some soft thrilling moments, Acting by 2010s most hot Movie Stars.

'Kaal' was quite a mess of a movie. I found most of it unintentionally hilarious. Soham's direction is pretty unstable. It's as if hé himself is trying to see what happens next (when it's all quite predictable). All the performances are very bad. The camera seems to focus a lot on John Abraham's torso and the actor himself is mostly wooden. Ajay Devgan sounds sleepy all the time and looks uninterested. Esha Deol and Lara Dutta where designer outfits and run around in the jungle. While the former does nothing, the latter loudly overacts. Vivek Oberoi is the only one who acts and gives a decent performance. The 'scary' scenes provide decent comic relief. The jungle scenes were rather nicely shot (though cinematography sucks at many places) and it felt good to see a change of location rather than the dancing in New York wearing skimpy outfits. What a drag of a flick though.

Well this movie is not like the typical Bollywood horror movie. It has its different tone. Screenplay is good. But lacks story and the climax can easily be predicted. Good cast but the acting has little surprised me because all are overreacting except Ajay Devgn. Ajay Devgn was superb in the movie and fit to play the character that he plays. Otherwise just decent watch you can give it a try. It's not that horror but it's a good thriller.....