One-Line Review: Nag Ashwin’s vision, Kalki, yields an outstanding attempt – an amalgamation of mythology with futuristic sci-fi genre.
Kalki 2898 AD Youtube Trailer
Cast: Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Hassan, Deepika Padukone, etc.
Release Date: June 27, 2024
Director: Nag Ashwin
Introduction
A savior is expected to take birth to save the world from the clutches of evil in the dystopian India. When the puranas come true, the evil tries to stop the prophecies.
Prabhas and Amitabh Bachchan shine in a visually stunning drama
~ The Hindu
Our rating for Kalki 2898 AD is 09/10.
Summary
Krishna curses Ashwatthama for attempting to Kill uttara’s baby in her womb. Ashwatthama is cursed to roam around earth, witnessing the misery of humans till with incurable diseases. As a redemption, Krishna announces his re-birth on Kaliyuga and Ashwatthama can attain ‘mokksha’ by saving him and his mother.
Years later, in a dystopian India where there is only cruelty, scarcity and doom, Kashi city is seen swarming with people who are miserable and poor. Complex is a high-end place left in earth were all the good things in the earth is preserved. Complex is ruled by Supreme Yaskin and only a person who manages to collect 1 Million points can reach the Complex. Bhairava, a thief in Kashi with his sidekick Bujji – an AI powered bot car is busy collecting points by catching bounties for complex.
Meanwhile a girl named Sum-80, a project-K worker, hides her pregnancy in order to save her child. All girls who are impregnated by auto-fertilization process will be killed after extracting a serum from their wombs. Fearing this and to save her child, Sum-80 tries flees the complex with the help of a spy from Shambala. Shambala comprises of people who are expecting the arrival of the ‘mother’, carrying her son who can be their savior.
Complex announces a lumpsum amount as bounty for whoever captures Sum-80 as supreme Yaskin needs the serum. Bhairava sets off to capture Sum-80. Ashwatthama who was in exile, senses the arrival of ‘the mother’ and sets off to protect her. Here starts a battle between Ashwatthama and Bhairava as well as the complex being involved parallelly.
Review
Nag Ashwin had been working on Kalki since a really long time and the sneak peaks from the production definitely tingled the curiosity level of people. It was already rumored that Kalki will talk about the ‘Kalki’ avatar mentioned in the Hindu mythology as well as the Kaliyuga. With an ensembled star cast and never before attempted theme in Indian cinema, Nag Ashwin had a huge barrier of risk before him. And with Kalki’s release, Nag emerged with flying colors.
Kalki is so ambitious, that even with an ensembled star cast, the world building and technicality stays at the forefront. People were expecting to witness a powerful comeback of Prabhas after multiple flops. Though he did delivered a notable comeback, Amitabh Bachchan ended up as the ultimate show-stealer. Prabhas was convincing as Bhairva. Or, in other words, after you finish watching Kalki, you might as well feel like there is no other actor currently to portray the role. Even then, as per the script and character arc, Amitabh Bachchan’s Ashwatthama ended up as one of the best roles in the actor’s career. While Bollywood seemed to waste Amitabh’s potential, Nag wrote a character so apt for him, it ended up getting etched in the hearts of people. Kamal Hassan had very less screen space as the main protagonist but his story is yet to be told in the sequel. Kalki 2898 AD basically is an introduction to what Nag Aswin was working upon, the world building, the characters and the bizarre laws of the dystopian world – an alien concept in Indian cinema.
Nag Ashwin’s attempt to amalgamate Mahabharata to his fictional story worked big time. The introduction of Kalki showed an impeccable visual effects in depicting the great war of Kurukshetra. This intro worked as a great start for the movie, giving an idea about how dedicated Nag was while working on this project. The big reveal in the climax was like a small intro for something interesting and massive to come in the sequel. Now, all eyes are on Nag Ashwin and team to see how and what they are going to pull off in Kalki 2, where the major portions might highlight the faceoff between Kamal’s Yaskin and Prabhas’s Bhairava.
Conclusion
Kalki 2898 AD is definitely a milestone in Indian cinema with Nag emerging as a capable filmmaker to pull off ambitious projects flawlessly.
