‘Kalki 2898 Ad’ Review: Prabhas Epic Is A Tremendous, Cathartic Pleasure

The world is a desert, illuminated corpses cover the earth up to the illuminated horizon, drums resonate and voices rise in a choral tide; Kalki 2898 AD is massive from the start. Krishna enters the scene, riding in a chariot pulled by four apocalyptic black horses, to curse the sole survivor of the battle, Ashwarthama, for the sin of shooting an unborn child. Like many of the characters who wander through Nag Ashwin’s prodigious Telugu-language epic, the valiant Ashwarthama lacks a moral framework.

Thanks to Krishna, he will have plenty of time to acquire one; he will not be punished with death, but with thousands of years of dreary life while awaiting his destiny, which is to save the god Vishnu in his next incarnation. A god can take many forms, the chorus of voices tells us. Kalki is the name given to the tenth and final avatar of Vishnu.