Mahakaal

Mahakaal directed by tulsi and shyam ramsay is a horror, thriller and action film. It's an Indian adaptation of nightmare on elm's street. Ramsays are famous for directing horror movies. The problem with indian entertainment industry is that they exaggerate everything and that is where the beauty and aesthetics of film literature gets vanished. Mahabir bhullar as shakal is utilized just as a prop.. He has been given no dialogues. Non verbal roles are difficult to portray. One needs an effective script for portraying such a role. Robert Englund's Freddy is much higher in terms of performance compared to shakaal. The other characters are fine, but script and direction should have been much better. Adaptations should be of ideas. Once an idea is perceived, then it should be treated with complete originality. But anyway tulsi and shyam ramsay have tried their best to make mahakaal convincing. Shakaal could have been a simple looking villain too.

The beginning years of the 90s were most traumatic for the B-horror genre of Bollywood. Attempts were made to return the audience to the old school of horror but these attempts only fueled the sense of hate among the audience for the Ramsays, who were once liked by the horror buffs for their originality. I really don't understand what went wrong with the Ramsay brothers that they failed to maintain their originality in the early 90s. They tried to make their film as shocking as possible with a limited budget in hand. The resulting films, which were usually rip-offs of highly successful American films, failed to do any good to them as they all turned into a big fiasco. Previously, The Ramsays used to copy few jack-in-the-box scenes from certain Hollywood films but as the time went by, they said yes to complete plagiarism. Films like 'Aakhri Cheekh' and 'Mahakal aka The Monster' are the living examples of plagiarism which never helped the Ramsays reclaim their lost position in Bollywood.

'Mahakal' is 'A Nightmare on Elm Street - 1984' rip-off but those who've already seen this Wes Craven masterpiece will be left with frowning faces once they have watched this piece of trash. The main storyline comes concurrent with ANOES with few exceptions where Ramsays have tried to improve it. Ha ha, they thought they were improving the original version but we know what they came up with. If anyone of the Ramsays is reading my review then please note that by making 'Mahakal' you've only insulted yourself and not Wes Craven. Wes Craven made a masterpiece which was hellish and freaky in every sense and was packed with guts and gore. Including dance numbers and infantile comedy doesn't give 'Mahakal' an advantage over ANOES.

Archana Puran Singh who along with Navjot Singh Siddhu has been criticized by many for her meaningless laughter plays the lead part in 'Mahakal'. She often dreams of a man with long steel fangs who attacks her in dreams. Archana usually wakes up with cuts and bruises she gets during her struggle with the monster in her dreams. Her family and friends try to console her, but Archana is the destined prey of this monster who won't leave her unless she has been laid to rest forever.

I guess this part clearly coincides with the original ANOES but whatever has been trashed out apart from the above plot is clearly an additive and a foolish contribution to the original version. If they want to make a rip-off they should first learn to create an effect on the viewers. I don't say that films need a good budget to be effective. Films like 'Gehrayee', 'Raat', 'Red Rose' etc. didn't have a heavy budget but their effect can be felt till date. All you need is a good plot, good actors and expert direction. I won't recommend 'Mahakal' to anyone who has already watched the original A Nightmare On Elm Street', because 'Mahakal' is simply a comedy of errors.

Mahakaal is a low budget horror film from Bollywood. The Directors Ramsays have made two great movies in the eighties. Purana Mandir and Veerana are example of amazing cinema for Indian horror. Mahakaal is a copy of A nightmare on Elm street part 1, 2, 3, 4 and even 5. It has elements and death scenes from all 5 sequels of the Freddy movies. The monster is a cheap version on Freddy Kruger. The star cast are all unknown B Grade actors. Only one actor that I love in this film Johnny Lever. This is a complete poor show all the way and will not appeal to anybody. Bad acting and bad directing and the audience are getting bored of cheap horror.

Mahakaal (The Monster) is an Indian take/ripoff of the Nightmare on Elm Street Movie.

The movie stars the quite beautiful Archana Puran Singh as Anita who gets tormented by the evil demon Shakaal, who was buried alive by her father after he had killed sacrificed several children, one being Anita's sister. Shakaal attacks Anita and her closest ones throughout the movie. Anita and her gang tries to avoid him by going on field trips and by doing a few musical numbers where they sing and dance.

The movie is made by the Ramsay brothers who might have the "honour" of being the horror kings of India. It's actually a quite decent movie visually with some colorful and creepy looking scenes. The creepiness goes quickly away however thanks to a lot of comic reliefs (and i mean A lot) and effects which are a little to simple and not so effective. They also rip off the famous soundbits from the American Freddy movies which is a good addition to this one. It also rips off a scene from Day of the Dead and a good murder scene from Nightmare on Elm Street Part III.

I wish the movie had been shorter though. Running a little over to hours is way to long for a movie like this. And there is plenty of scenes which could have been cut out. Everything including the "comic relief guy" played by Johnny Lever would have been nice since he isn't funny or have anything to add to this movie. I guess that would have made the movie 20 minutes shorter and also a much better experience. Take away the subplot with the bad dude who wants Anita as well and you got a movie that is about 80 minutes long which would be an even bigger improvement. If others feel like me then I'm sure we'll see some fanedits in the future.

There's also a problem with Hindu-Freddy. He does not speak (although he laughs a lot) or really do anything very frightening. Freddy's charisma in the American movies is one of it's biggest assets and I'm quite surprised the Ramseys didn't use that in this one. The mullet on Hindu-Freddy however gives him a little plus.

The movie was actually started on in 1988, but was put on hold when another Indian take on the Freddy movies came along called Khooni Murdaa.

Although it has it's fun parts and funny dance numbers I'd only recommend it to the ones who are curious and want to laugh at a Freddy ripoff movie. See it for the nice visual nightmare scenes and try to ignore Johnny Lever and enjoy Mahakaal.

The movie is available on a Mondo Macabre DVD which was released in the summer of '09. Support Mondo Macabre who continues to put out weird and unknown Asian cult movies! Enjoy.

Nightmare On Elm Street The Hindu musical I was hoping for a dubbed version or subtitles Because I want to understand what's being said (I'm weird like that) In fairness it doesn't really matter very much anyway Because you would have to be blind or in a coma or never seen a Nightmare On Elm Street To not know what movie they're copying Not sure why they needed a Michael Jackson copycat or so many musical numbers I did notice there was one musical number that was completely muted I'm assuming it was because of copyright issues With all that aside I don't really care it's a wildly fun and entertaining good time at the movies.