Kaal

'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.

Pride is what caused Kaal. I could somehow feel Karan Johar in each and every shot, and the forced acting, the worst use of the wide angle, funny jungle sounds you could buy on a cheap CD, and of course, Shah Rukh Khan and Mallaika. For a moment it seemed more like a Pepsi Commercial, and a badly directed one at that. Strangers meet in jungle, hacked one by one, until they come upon the big secret, something that you'll guess anyway within the first fifteen minutes of the movie. the only person it might fool is someone sleeping through the movie. The Director must have really begged to get this chance, and Karan Johar must have been desperately bored. Some claim this film is a hit. Of course it will be. That's why Shah Rukh appears at the beginning, to tell us: "it's all right! this kind of crap is endorsed by me, see?" The movie is an insult to the paying-public. Of course, only a Karan Johar can get away with such blatant disrespect, with his already immoral films setting the trends for today's youngsters. while aditya chopra strives for morals, karan johar exploits the lack of it. True, he does vibe well with the public. But for how long?

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

This movie isn't unwatchable or a waste of time.

Although the direction of the movie is poor and the cinematography is half backed effort.

The background score is pretty decent plus the music as well.

It adds to the eerieness of the movie overall.

The movie has a decent first half but picks up the pace with the introduction of ajay devgan.

He although stole the show with his acting skills whereas others were pretty decent.

I am not saying that this is one of the greatest movie to ever made but it has its moments which were really unpredictable.

Although the character development is really very poor in this one because of the lack of depth.

This movie is penned haphazardly and requires some serious introspection on the behalf of the writer!!

Although this is an okayish movie.

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.