Combining science fiction and supernatural forces is a common occurrence in a lot of genre fiction, but in Kalki 2898 AD, well, the title says it all. Kalki is the name for the prophesied final incarnation of Vishnu, said to usher in a new epoch of existence. Suitably, this film, one of the largest productions in Indian history and the start of a cinematic universe, takes place at the end of the world. It has a cast of the nation’s biggest names, and a production that pulls out all the stops for visuals and set design. It’s also a pastiche of some of sci-fi’s biggest franchises with actual religious mythology thrown in. In short, it’s nothing less than one of the year’s most epic films by definition, but is it any good? As it turns out, yeah, it is. It’s not great, but I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
It’s the year 2898, and Earth is a hellscape run by the 200-year-old totalitarian Supreme Yaskin. A war has left only the city of Kasi, and the planet’s resources are dominated by The Complex, a large structure of the world’s elite that has been forcibly taking fertile women for the deadly and consistently failed experiment Project K to extend Yaskin’s lifespan. The forces of Yaskin, the Raiders, have been searching for the hidden city of Shambhala, whose rebel residents foretell the coming of Kalki. Meanwhile, one of the kidnapped women, SUM-80, has managed to remain pregnant longer than any of the other women, which may be a sign of Kalki’s coming. Also meanwhile, Bhairava, a bounty hunter, longs of the day when he can enter The Complex and make a new life for himself. Also also meanwhile, Ashwatthama, who has spent the last 6,000 years cursed by Krishna with immortality, realizes the prophecy of Kalki may be at hand. All of these people ultimately converge when SUM-80 manages to escape The Complex, as it becomes extremely apparent that something bigger than anyone can fathom is about to happen.
First of all, I don’t normally say this, but seeing as how this has a major release in the US, I feel like I need to. If you don’t know anything about the plot of this movie, I would look it up first. While heavily inspired by pre-existing franchises, the backbone of the plot is the actual mythology and epic poetry of Hinduism, specifically, the Mahabharata. The film opens not with a future dystopia, but with a lavish recreation of the events of the poem, which are key to the story as a whole. However, as someone who isn’t versed in the mythology, it was pretty easy to follow along. It’s a combo of science fiction and faith that actually ends up working pretty well.
Speaking of lavish production values, this is also among the most expensive Indian movies to date, and you can see where they put the money in. The production design is incredible, and really wears the film’s influences on its sleeve. There’s visual splendor on full display, from hellish desert dystopias, to beautiful mythical cities, to a musical number set in the elite corners of the Complex where greenery and opulence abound. There’s even a devastating hand-drawn animation sequence of the historical events leading up to the film. It looked great on the big screen.
However, visuals only go so far, especially if your film runs a full 3 hours, but for the most part, I was entertained. I can’t ignore that this movie feels like several major sci-fi franchises thrown into a blender, but as a pastiche applied to scripture, it works really well. It does drag at a certain point though, but never to the extent where the length felt too much, and there’s a lot of plot here. The cast is great, but Prabhas steals the show as bounty hunter Bhairava. Like a combination of Han Solo and Spike Spiegel, he’s a clear comic relief in an otherwise dismal world. As in other films I’ve seen with him, he has a charisma and screen presence that, based on audience response alone, Hollywood’s biggest celebrities wish they could have. (The film also contains a hilarious and unexpected meta-cameo involving him that I won’t spoil here.) The action sequences are top-notch overall, with an absolutely epic climax and a lot of emotional weight.
Without spoiling the movie, some last-minute plot twists did feel a tad out of nowhere (even in-context), and some scenes could’ve been heavily trimmed, but overall, this one impressed me. As the first part of a cinematic universe, it does a great job of setting up an epic story based on real-life mythology that actually made me anticipate the next installment. While cliched and a tad long in the tooth (there is an intermission, but my screening didn’t include one), I’d recommend this to people looking for epic genre cinema they might otherwise not seek out.
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