Review of “Kalki 2898 AD”

The world is a desert, illuminated corpses covering the earth to the eerily lit horizon, thundering drums and voices rising in a choral tide; Kalki 2898 AD is massive from the start. Krishna enters the scene, riding in a chariot pulled by four perfectly 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 is not to be punished by death, but by 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 10th and final avatar of Vishnu. According to the great epic poem MahabharataKalki will appear when everything is so terrible that it needs to be cleaned once and for all.

There is always someone who claims that the worst of times is now, of course; hence, in real life, there have been quite a few Kalki pretenders. And despite the date in the title, Kalki 2898 AD You could read it as a series of allusions to current issues: its tangled web of plots includes a man-made climate crisis, femicide, the erasure of democratic freedoms, and an obscene chasm between rich and poor. All of it. Or you could take it as a gigantic space opera combining Indian mythology with bits of Star Wars, Mad Max, Blade Runner And The Handmaid’s Talewhipping them together into a great cinematic froth. Take your pick. Either way, it’s overwhelming. And that’s just the first episode.

Now let’s move on to the titles. Shazam, it’s been 6,000 years since Ashwarthama walked this field of death. There is only one town left, Kashi, full of poor workers jostling at the gates of the Complex, the pinnacle of gated housing estates – it is an inverted pyramid, so vast that the park on the flat roof includes a ocean – imploring the rulers for indulgence. These people would kill each other over an apple.

Meanwhile, wasteland newcomers are captured by guards looking for fertile or potentially fertile girls. They are imprisoned, fed and duly “seeded”. Nobody wants children; it is their amniotic fluid, which is siphoned off early in pregnancy, that is so desirable. Powered by another grotesque maze of tubes, this “serum” keeps the withered ruler Supreme Yaskin (Kamal Haasan, always splendid) alive.

Somewhere beyond the endless desert, however, there is a rebel colony called Shambala, where it is believed that a blessed mother will one day arrive to give birth to a savior who will set everything right. (What this film shows above all is how myths are shared across cultures.)

She duly arrives in the beautiful person of Sumathi (Deepika Padukone), under the protection of the now-former Ashwarthama. In impeccable casting, he is played by Amitabh Bachchan, an 81-year-old Bollywood cinema legend who carries the pain of millennia and looks a lot like Gandalf. He even carries a magic staff that, like most props, has a tendency to burst into flames.

Of course, the monsters of the Complex are also on Samarthi’s trail, as is a battle-worn bounty hunter named Bhairava who hopes to sell her to the Complex. Bhairava is alone and the devil is taking over, but played by the hugely popular pan-Indian star Prabhas, he is never less than likable, funny, incredibly invincible and undeniably hot. Think of Harrison Ford in Star Warswith that cheeky grin; like Han Solo, Bhairava even has a robot sidekick. He may be a very bad boy, but he has the clout of a hero in the making: watch this very big and very busy space.

The designers of this space have of course given their all. Like Kashi – or, in fact, like the world of Mad Max – Shambala is a mix of high-tech force fields, assembled steampunk vehicles and medieval weaponry. There are plenty of spectacular fights, often involving flight; fistfights bring down entire buildings while leaving the combatants unscathed. It’s the art of the impossible, presented by CGI, which, unlike many of its Western counterparts, has every chance of flourishing. Why try to disguise what you can celebrate?

This is how the world ends, not with a whimper but with lots of massive detonations, increasingly complicated battles and alliances, betrayals and soulful songs. It’s great, cathartic entertainment – and, given that Vishnu’s next avatar is apparently not yet born, what is described in marketing pitches as Kalki’s cinematic universe is expected to rage, burn and roar for a few more editions, leaving the public happily exhausted. What can I say ? All power to this burning staff.

Title: Kalki 2898 AD
Studio: Vyjayanthi’s Movies
Release date: June 27, 2024
Director-screenwriter: Nag Ashwin
Cast: Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Haasan
Duration : 3 hours