Kalki 2898 - marching to Dystopia

Kalki 2898
2024, Telugu

Director: Nag Ashwin

Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Saswata Chatterjee, Anna Ben and Kamal Hassan

Mohan's Measure - ⭐

The opening sequences of Kalki would probably require an expert in Mahabharata to explain.  Krishna has protected the child in the womb of Utthara such that the Pandava Dynasty can continue.  He is then seen cursing the powerful warrior Ashwatthama that he should live forever until the end of Kaliyuga, when he would serve the final Avatara, Kalki.

At this point, all connection to Hindu history and theology ends.  We are suddenly thrust 6000 years forward in time, 2898 according to the movie title, to a dystopian Mad-Max setting, to witness 3 hours of action and CGI, set around the story of Ashwatthama finally meeting with the mother of the savior and her yet to be born child.

The rest of what would be far reaching to call a plot is utter nonsense, a smash up of scenes from just about every American science fiction movie ever made, put together with the latest CGI to make us feel...like we are watching video game?

Indeed, I wondered throughout what motivates Tollywood's fascination for dystopian futures and CGI fluff made about them.  We can only presume Bahubali's success has encouraged people to try their hand at multi-verses, hence the borrowing from American film.   But, there is something surreal here, something lacking to the movie itself that makes us apathetic to the goings on, no matter how much action is taking place. 

In all the American movies which were stolen from, we find ourselves relating to the characters in some way.  However, the resulting Tollywood characters fall flat. For example, there is little to doubt that Prabhas' character is largely borrowed from Han Solo.  But Solo is so likeable, so believable, he is an iconic character a tweenager could look up to. Much like the CGI world which surrounds him, however, Prabhas' Bhairava is a caricature, a cartoon, his wit feeling forced and mechanical.  While he can act like Solo, and sometimes fight like Thor, there is nothing that makes us want to know more about him, what to speak of relating to him.

The same can be said for Deepika Padukone.  Her character is the Mother of God, someone who is perceived as having some special quality that makes her worthy of Grace.  But, even the explanation as to why she was chosen does little to stir her emotions, or even a hint at wonder.  She remains a shallow victim in the tug of war between so-called good and evil forces, for which she goes along without even the slightest cry for help.

The shallowness and apathy is just as evident in the acting, even Brahmanandam merely serves in cameo appearances to pass time between over the top CGI action.  The only person taking all this seriously is Big B in his 8 foot avatar, and it is only for this that the movie has some merit.

The Avatara Himself is said to be upcoming in a sequel...but like the characters in this failure of a movie, nobody in the audience seems to care.