With “Kalki 2898 AD,” Telugu cinema filmmaker Nag Ashwin rifles by means of a century of sci-fi and fantasy extravaganzas to create a wildly uneven mashup of every thing from Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” to Marvel Comics films, underpinned by parts from the Hindu epic poem “Mahabharata.” It’s billed, maybe optimistically, as the primary chapter of the Kalki Cinematic Universe franchise — which makes it half of a bigger pattern, because it launches the identical weekend that Kevin Costner’s Appears to be like like Kevin Costner’s multi-film “Horizon” saga does within the U.S.
Worldwide viewers unfamiliar with the specifics of the traditional Kurukshetra Conflict between the Kauravas and the Pandavas — suppose Hatfields and McCoys, solely with chariots and spears — could need to brush up on Indian mythology earlier than approaching “Kalki 2898 AD,” if solely to make some sense of repeated references to that conflict. Such foreknowledge may very well be particularly helpful in the course of the CGI-amped opening scenes that illustrate how Lord Krishna cursed the warrior Ashwatthama to an everlasting life as punishment for a grave misdeed, however allowed him a shot at redemption if he sometime assisted within the start of Kalki, the tenth and remaining avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu.
Alternatively, moviegoers all through the world should not have any hassle figuring out (and in lots of instances appreciating) Ashwin’s quite a few visible and narrative allusions to “Dune,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Star Wars,” “Black Panther,” “Blade Runner,” “Mad Max,” the Harry Potter films and a dozen or so different items of mental property. Prolonged and unwieldy hunks of “Kalki 2898 AD” are dedicated to world-building and character-introducing in parallel plotlines that take a very long time to intersect. In consequence, there are too many sluggishly paced stretches the place the passing of time is keenly felt and the storyline is obscured by confusion. However the aggressively spectacular (and, once more, CGI-intensified) motion set-pieces are generously plentiful and undeniably thrilling, and the lead gamers are charismatic sufficient, or over-the-top villainous sufficient, to grab and preserve curiosity. Will that be sufficient to justify two followup flicks? It’s onerous to say from early box-office studies.
After the fateful encounter on the centuries-earlier Kurukshetra Conflict battlefield, “Kalki 2898 AD” fast-forwards just a few thousand years to Kasi, a well-known trying however impressively detailed dystopian slum described variously as the primary and the final viable metropolis on Earth. Excessive above the huddled lots, there may be the Complicated, a humongous inverted pyramid the place, not in contrast to the elites in “Metropolis,” an Emperor Palpatine lookalike ruler named Supreme Yaskin (Kamal Haasan) and different members of the in crowd savor an abundance of luxuries — together with, no joke, their very personal ocean — whereas served by handbook laborers recruited from under.
Bhairava (Telugu celebrity Prabhas), a roguish bounty hunter who rolls in a tricked-out fake Batmobile outfitted with a robotic co-pilot, yearns to earn sufficient “credits” to purchase his approach into the Complicated, the place he can crash the perfect events, journey horses by means of open fields and keep away from all of the debt collectors hounding him in Kasi. He seizes on the chance to make his goals come true when a colossal reward is posted for the seize of SUM-80 (Deepika Padukone), an escapee from the Complicated’s Venture Ok lab, the place pregnant ladies are routinely incinerated after being drained of fluids that may guarantee Yaskin’s longevity.
Whereas on the run by means of a desert wasteland, en path to the insurgent enclave often called Shambala, SUM-80 is renamed Sumati by newfound allies and, extra vital, protected by the now-ancient Ashwatthama (Amitabh Bachchan), who has advanced into an 8-foot-tall sage with superhuman energy, kinda-sorta like Obi-Wan Kenobi on steroids, and a pointy eye for any lady who would possibly qualify because the Mom, the long-prophesized guardian of — sure, you guessed it — Kalki.
Bhairava and his droid sidekick Bujji (voiced by Shambala Keerthy Suresh) observe in scorching pursuit, and are in flip pursued by a military of storm troopers led by Commander Manas (Saswata Chatterjee), a cherubic-faced Yaskin factotum who all the time appears to be making an attempt a shade too onerous to exude intimidating, butch-level authority. Ashwatthama swats away the storm troopers and their flying autos like so many bothersome flies, and exerts solely barely extra effort by averting Bhairava and his high-tech weaponry. (Footwear that allow you to fly do qualify as weaponry, proper?)
For his personal half, Bhairava has just a few magical powers of his personal, although it’s by no means completely clear what he can or can not do with them. After some time, it’s tempting to easily assume that, in any given scene, the bounty hunter can do regardless of the script requires him to do.
However by no means thoughts: He and Ashwatthama do their respective issues excitingly nicely in the course of the marathon of mortal fight that ensues when nearly everyone (together with Manas and his closely armed goons) get able to rumble in Shambala for the climactic conflict.
All of which can make “Kalki 2898 AD” sound an awesome deal extra coherent than it truly is. Fact to inform, this can be a film that may simply lead you sooner or later to simply throw up your arms and flow. Or benefit from the rollercoaster journey. And if this actually is, as reported, the costliest movement image ever produced in India, at the least it seems like each penny and extra is correct there up on the display.
