Among the huge star cast, Amitabh Bachchan stands out. The sluggish pre-interval portions are somewhat redeemed by an action-packed second half.
From his first film, Nag Ashwin has wanted to be different. Yevade Subramanyam, the first Telugu movie shot at the Everest, was about a story you usually don’t find in Telugu movies – and even if you do, certainly not made on this scale. It was about a materialistic man questioning his life. Nag’s second film was, in some ways, even more ambitious. In an era with short attention spans and where no one remembers what happened five minutes ago, he made Mahanati and took us back to the decades-old actor Savitri. Then came the episode titled xLife in the Netflix anthology Pitta Kathalu, where Nag examined the impact of virtual reality on human relationships. And now we have the writer-director’s most ambitious project, Kalki 2898 AD: it has the philosophical undertones of Yevade Subramanyam, the recreation of the past from Mahanati, and the futuristic spectacle of xLife. In a way, you could say Nag Ashwin has been working towards this movie all his career.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/telugu/movie/review/kalki-2898-ad/
You can watch the trailer / video review here:
Copyright ©2024 GALATTA.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Aman Basha
June 27, 2024
The praise for this movie is making me extremely happy. Nag Ashwin is a great director and his tenure at Vyjayanthi Movies has brought out some really good movies (Sita Ramam, Jathi Ratnalu). I always expected greatness from him.
I also suspect this will be an out and out Amitabh show, the likes of which was probably last seen in Khakee.
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KK
June 27, 2024
Despite Yaskin’s look being similar to Supreme leader Snoke ,the Dune hangover and BU-JZ being similar to JARVIS, I am quite excited for this movie. And Bachchan looks and acts like a dream. Let’s hope it’s not another Brahamastra.
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mvky
June 27, 2024
Gone through couple of reviews. Looks like first half is dragging and clueless while interval and 2nd half are getting applause. Bachchan receives high praise along with Deepika and Kamal Hasan. It looks like a great visual drama. Fingers crossed.
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gnanaozhi
June 27, 2024
read a few reviews including the one in scroll and am surprised that they are critiquing what seems to be the standard Heroes Journey trope. I definitely am excited for it and might catch it Sat
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Tanu aggarwal
June 27, 2024
The anticipation for Kalki 2898 AD is real! 🎬✨ Nag Ashwin’s direction, along with the stellar cast of Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, and Kamal Haasan, promises a visual extravaganza. Fans are excited about the unique blend of dystopia and mythology, though some worry it might be complex for the masses. Let’s hope it’s a blockbuster! 🌟 #Kalki2898AD #TrailerReview #EpicCinema
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Hari
June 27, 2024
Tropes are perfectly fine as long as they enhance or at least fit in with the storyline . The reviews so far seem to be critiquing the pacing.
There is surprisingly very little buzz for this movie in Chennai, in spite of Kamal being part of the cast.
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KK
June 27, 2024
The city of zion in Matrix and the battle there has a reference here and so does Black Panther.
The first half is indeed slow but then again there’s just a lot of world building and set-up. It picks up once Bachchan makes an entry and steals the movie. Not a single actor comes close. There were some inspiring innovations like that energy broom. Kamal wasn’t as menacing as he should have been. The final twist was amazing as are some dialogues, especially the one about Ganga in the beginning.
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Avan
June 27, 2024
KK,
You ruined it. Why mention there’s a twist at the end? I wanted to be completely surprised 😦
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Hari
June 27, 2024
@avan – Stay very far away from Internet forums if you want to watch any movie ‘clean’ 🙂
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KK
June 27, 2024
Brangan: Fantastic review as always. Captures everything I felt.
Avan: Come on. Even brangan has written that.
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Avan
June 27, 2024
KK,
Did he? I haven’t had a chance to read his reviews yet. I usually trust your comments 🙂
Hari,
Thanks for your ‘unsolicited’ advice 🙏
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Rocky
June 27, 2024
Reviews ( Critcs and public) are generaly positive.
Today is Presidential debate , Friday and Saturday graduation parties. Will have to wait till Sunday now.
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vijay
June 27, 2024
Another empty spectacle from Gaaliwood..whats new? Kamal looks like he has recycled used prosthetics from Indian 2 as part of a sustainability drive within filmdom.
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Akhilan
June 27, 2024
Haven’t watched the movie yet, but even whilst watching the trailer, which I found quite impressive (shout out to Amitabh Bachchan in particular), I just wished Nag Ashwin had gotten rid of the romantic and comic tracks all together. It felt distracting, a bit cringy, and sucked you out of the universe Ashwin is trying to immerse us in. The reviews seem to corroborate as much; critiquing the slow first-half with its half-baked writing that devotes way too much time to unnecessary sub-plots. At the very least, Ashwin could have cast someone else instead of Disha Patani. Nevertheless, I’m excited to watch it, genuinely want it to do well, and hope forthcoming installments within this universe focus purely on the mythological x sci-fi aspect; which would consequently make the story-telling more believable and compelling.
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Hari
June 27, 2024
Totally agree with BR that movie was visually stunning but lacked any depth, and I want ask BR, why do u think Indian film makers have so bad writing especially in high concept movies, y does the movie feel like the same masala movie format with a layer of fake sci-fi elements for the sake of it,elevation mass scenes and dialogue at every point rather than the movie to have a organic scenes of mass or high point like literally Prabhas entry scene was unnecessarily too long that adds nothing to the movie. Do the stars demand this kind of scenes or the directors using it to cover there stale writing. Is the reason the movie reminds us of so many film is that they used many movie references as direct references for vfx and not trying to find a unique style for the movie, I’m sitting at the theatre the whole time like facepalming how much potential there was for a great movie and all they could do was this…. Very disappointed.
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Apu
June 28, 2024
Going to watch it this weekend I guess – the husband is a GIANT Amitabh fan so he will not have it any other way.
The trailer seemed to be mix of Star Wars (I have recently been immersed in that world), Dune and transformers (or any fantasy action movie). Looking forward to seeing depth due to the mythological connection – something that I was disappointed with in Brahmastra.
I know this is a Telugu movie review, so how are the dialogues in Hindi?
Unpopular opinion – I did not find Star Wars having too much character building either, and most of the movies in the series are like video game action pieces. Even the humor sucks. The world building is great though.
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kaizokukeshav
June 28, 2024
**SPOILERS**
Just watched this movie, it truly felt like Indian cinema is now visually capable of creating our own version of Harry Potter or Star wars even though the end product that is far more dramatic than western versions. Santosh Narayanan was the game changer.
A lot of tropes were heavily taken from external references. Shambala from the game Uncharted 2 and the inner sanctum from Horizon game. Bounty chase was a Mad Max ripoff. A touch of Transformers, Star Wars and Dune too. Kashi city from Gaurdians of the Galaxy etc. What stood out for me is the fact that we could pull off a movie like this.
But looking back, the movie was full of the same cliches all over that we see in a typical average masala movie. Hero getting an intro fight, heroine gets saved in the nick of time, villian seeking divine power etc.. and the characters dying without emotional payoffs.
Some scenes were terribly directed, like why is the girl that met Aswatthama has the stone ? Who are the Shambala warriors ? Also why so many side-characters couldn’t put a simple expression. The girl who died fighting in the desert didn’t even made me feel for her. Luckily the inexperience was saved by a decent story.
One more thing was the action choreography was shockingly entertaining. It’s been quite a while since I enjoyed fight scenes like I did in Kalki. Even the weapons and use of robots was terrific, kudos. Even the fight between Karna and Arjun which explodes like a bomb felt exciting. A problem I felt was context-switching between mythology and sci-fi was terribly done. The audience were not prepared properly wrt world building.
When I saw Prabhas backstory that involved DQ, that story was terrific. It touched my heart. But why didn’t the rest of the movie involve stories like that ? Why were the good, bad, ugly and everything so generic ?
Also I didn’t feel anything in the final reveal. What are these meaningless elevation scenes when nothing is explained ? Why this pandering ? I dislike Nag Ashwin for glorifying some known character just out of nostalgia but not show any depth behind that elevation, same with Mahanati. He was good in parts, brilliant in imagination but failed in keeping the audience enthralled. A solid B+.
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KK
June 28, 2024
Apu: “I did not find Star Wars having too much character building either, and most of the movies in the series are like video game action pieces. Even the humor sucks. The world building is great though.”
Oh boy. Okay. The first star wars movie was never about charcters. It’s about archetypes. The lovable rogue of Han Solo, Leia’s Damsel in Distress, Kenobi as the wise old man and finally Luke as the chosen one fighting the master of evil Darth Vader. It took its inspirations from westerns, the legend of king arthur, eastern philosophy and even Kurosawa’s movies. And the later movies do flesh out the characters, starting from Empire strikes back. And about the video game thing, it’s supposed to be an adeventure.
Finally check out Andor. There isn’t a lot of prerequisites to watch it. This is a character driven show that details the beginning of the rebellion. It’s really good. And if you are willing you can also check out Clone wars tv series that really explained the prequels and especially the character of Anakin Skywalker.
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KK
June 28, 2024
“He becomes both the heart and the soul of the film where so much is happening, including the heavy CGI work and the surprising cameos.”
https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/regional-cinema/story/kalki-2898-ad-review-why-amitabh-bachchan-is-really-the-immortal-god-of-acting-as-ashwatthama-2559000-2024-06-27
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brangan
June 28, 2024
Hari: why do u think Indian film makers have so bad writing especially in high concept movies, y does the movie feel like the same masala movie format with a layer of fake sci-fi elements for the sake of it,elevation mass scenes
I think it’s because most of the writing is focused mainly on plot, as opposed to characterisation. Beyond a point, most “plots” are the same, and it’s the characters that make it different.
Take Deepika here. Other than “lab person/damsel in distress” what do we know about her? What is her reaction when she finds out she is pregnant (since she seems so unaware of the ways of the world)? What is her reaction when she realises she can walk through fire? Does she pause to think about what’s happening to her? No – and that’s why we, too, don’t care.
I think people think so much about how to imagine the world that they forget / don’t want to think about the people who live in that world. I am all for archetypes. But like I said in my review, even in MAX MAX, that one bit gives a splash of character colour to Charlize Theron’s “action heroine” archetype. We know why saving those pregnant women is so important to her. That’s all that’s needed.
kaizokukeshav: What stood out for me is the fact that we could pull off a movie like this.
Yup, that is the main takeaway. Now that we have the resources to pull off a project of this magnitude, it’s going to create a whole new “genre” of big movies for big heroes.
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Madan
June 28, 2024
Even in Holly, if say you compared the Avatar movies to Killers of the Flower Moon, the gap in depth would be wider than the Pacific end to end. But there are much better examples where directors did what BR wrote about – created memorable characters. Like the dangerously greedy Attenborough character in Jurassic Park. But even a side character like the disgruntled techie is memorable in that movie. I personally feel those sort of movies where there is a lot of interaction between ‘normal’ human beings and the ‘alien’ world wind up with more depth than the ones where the entire universe is make believe. The LOTR movies would be among the notable exceptions but they also kind of evoke the sense of a medieval world (which is what Baahubali also did in essence) to make the fantasy world more acceptable for the audience. In Avatar, everything is just…water.
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brangan
June 28, 2024
Also, this is a film that has something interesting in concept (but doesn’t really come through in the execution). As far as Part 1 goes, there are two protagonists: (1) Bhairava, who has the whole “bad guy turns good when he realises his destiny” arc, and (2) Ashwathama, due to the sheer screen time and the fact that he is the only “good guy” for most of the movie.
Had they played this up better, this might have been really interesting — especially, given that there is no real antagonist. We only have minor villains like Yaskin’s minions.
Curious if there have been big adventure-type movies with no real antagonist…
Also, have there been films which are basically a set-up for Part 2, where Part 1 is not complete in itself?
PS: Yaskin reminded me of Voldemort from the Harry Potter series — someone weak and practically ‘formless’ until he gets the ‘soul’ of the enemy.
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vijay
June 28, 2024
Avatar vs Killers of the moon is somewhat apples to oranges, different genres/ambitions altogether.. Compare Avatar with his own Aliens(1986), another movie with human-alien ‘interaction” and the character building within the taut intense action-thriller. You care enough to root for Sigourney Weaver character and the little girl to make it out alive while you hate the slimy technocrat character who accompanies the crew. You give the same premise to a Lokesh Kanagaraj or Atlee and they will turn it into a series of empty action set-pieces with low stakes(for the viewer). Fartlee would probably have Rajni/Vijay obliterating aliens in slo-mo with a Gatling gun every 10 minutes..
These empty big spectacles filled with star-brands are what our makkals are now willing to pay for to see in a theater..anything less can be watched in OTT. In other words, getting to a mediocre Marvel movie-like level is itself a big accomplishment. But hey atleast our Marvel shit has Amitabh and Kamal in it, yours does’nt.
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vijay
June 28, 2024
“Also, have there been films which are basically a set-up for Part 2, where Part 1 is not complete in itself?”
PS-1 was that, most of the screen time taken up to introduce characters alomng the way in Karthi’s journey. Although its not an ‘adventure’ movie per se. And it made more money than PS-2.
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vijay
June 28, 2024
“it’s going to create a whole new “genre” of big movies for big heroes.’
Fartlee is trying to bring Salman and Rajnikanth together 🙂
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KK
June 28, 2024
Brangan: “Curious if there have been big adventure-type movies with no real antagonist…”. What about National Treasure?
Yaskin reminded me of Snoke in design and Palpatine of Episode-IX in the motive.
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KK
June 28, 2024
Vijay: PS-1 was literally a half movie since both PS-1&2 were shot together. It’s like Baahubali-1.
Brangan: “Also, have there been films which are basically a set-up for Part 2, where Part 1 is not complete in itself?” Does Brahmastra count? Even that was also a lot of set-up with main villain revealed at the end.
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Bindasss
June 28, 2024
@Avan: speaking of a ‘twist at the end’ doesn’t happen to be a spoiler these days!
All of these “universes” end with a cliffhanger, so that there’s an easy headstart for the next instalment. This is the case with every other movie, unless sequels are unrelated, like in Singham’s copuniverse. 😉 Everyone in Bollywood wants to build a franchise right now… be it based on action, sexuality, or even pregnancy… every director wants a bite. And, seemingly, the audience is dying to know what happens next.
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Bindasss
June 28, 2024
*Curious if there have been big adventure-type movies with no real antagonist…”.*
Jagga Jasoos, Uunchai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Qarib Qarib Singlle, Karwaan?
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kaizokukeshav
June 29, 2024
“Curious if there have been big adventure-type movies with no real antagonist…”
I guess the masterpiece of all, aka LOTR has the Dark lord Sauron’s presence but never shows up anywhere. Others may be Lawrence of Arabia, Interstellar kind of movies that are focussed on self-realization. Bourne Series too doesn’t have an antagonist that could be pinned to one person, it’s the CIA that keeps chasing him.
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brangan
June 29, 2024
None of the examples of films with no antagonists) really work. NATIONAL TREASURE is not mythical — it’s more fun. The BOURNE films/ LOTR have unseen but still very active antagonists — heck, even the Ring is a kinda “villain”, in that it is a very viable and constant threat. LAWRENCE etc. are not really mythic-adventures. They are more internal stories about one man…
So again, in this mythic-adventure space — like BAAHUBALI, STAR WARS, etc., do we have any films/series without an active antagonist for the most part? Because I feel that is one of the reasons KALKI is underwhelming. There are no real stakes. In STAR WARS, when Vader demonstrates the power of the Death Star by blowing up a planet, you really feel the stakes. Here, it’s just a bunch of minions in funny costumes, randomly killing people.
We know there are rebels. But what are they rebelling against? Just a random bunch of rich people on Kashi, or are they trying to free the pregnant women, or are they trying to prevent the re-emergence of Yaskin? There’s no clarity about any of the worlds or the motives…
A friend argued with me that KALKI has been targeted at “family audiences”, so it’s not fair to expect real bad-ass-ery — but I don’t know…
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brangan
June 29, 2024
This — BTW — is interesting for Kamal factoid collectors 🙂
https://x.com/manikudanthai1/status/1806712210871505285?t=ld5CB7OrYXQxSj1mapdGzw&s=19
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Aman Basha
June 29, 2024
@brangan: The Kamal factoid was evident right from the trailer, where Kamal says Maro Prapancham, the title of Sri Sri’s magnum opus.
The film clips are the Telugu version of Varumayin Niram Sigappu, where Sri Sri is used in substitute for Bharati. Very fun meta touch, which I wonder might have a deeper meaning in the sequel.
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KK
June 29, 2024
“But what are they rebelling against?”. I vaguely understood they are fighting against the complex for destroying the entire ecosystem of the world. They even talk about war at Bombay and the fall of Bombay. But yes it’s not very clear. Even for that matter Yaskin is never really explained except a throwaway line that he is 200 years old. I guess after Kalki is born, he will be taught the reason why the world is this way and why he needs to fight Yaskin. Then along with him we will also know. This also means we would see other immortals like Hanuman or Parshuram since the latter will be the teacher of Kalki. It would be awesome if Vyasa is the one telling Kalki and as an extension us the backstory.
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Prem Rogue
June 29, 2024
SOME SPOILERS
My immediate reaction, coming right from the theater, is that this didn’t work for me.
As has been mentioned, this is a mix of several blockbusters (Mad Max, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Black Panther, etc.), with an underlying Bhagavad Gita core. Star Wars is itself a mix of influences, but it doesn’t FEEL like one, even if you know what the influences are. It feels like a new work, but with Kalki I felt I could see the seams on the Frankenstein’s monster of different films stitched together. At times the jargon-filled dialogue had the stilted feel of a dubbed Hollywood film.
The scene towards the end with Prabhas in a Pacific Rim-like mech was a potent symbol of the film itself. A large mechanical contraption that looks like it has swallowed Prabhas whole. He gets lost in the film, amidst all the VFX and technical wizardry, with a thinly written character. Surely part 2 will change that.
I didn’t feel much of an emotional connection to the characters in Kalki. The film confuses gizmos and VFX for spectacle, and a deluge of information and plot for world-building. Amitabh was magnetic though. Not just his performance. Ashwatthama was one of the few characters I felt invested in following.
The key to telling a story with common tropes and archetypes is to figure out ways to make them not feel like tropes. I often saw the gears of the screenplay churning away, rather than being swept by the film. Take Kyra, for example. As soon as she started talking about having a house and children and dogs with her Ajju, I knew she was going to be killed off, and sure enough, after a few would-be bad-ass moments, she died. Yet I felt nothing for her because the film did a poor job of making her feel like a character to care about, as opposed to a trope.
The post-Bahubali pan-Indian spectacles have only confirmed Rajamouli’s place at the top of the heap. Like the statue of Bahubali looming over the statue of Bhallaladeva, Rajamouli looms over all these other directors chasing the kind of epic storytelling that Rajamouli has pulled off. The emotional connection to the characters is what maintains our interest in the big action set-pieces (which also haven’t been matched by other directors). As far as I’m concerned, only Rajamouli’s own RRR was a worthy follow-up to his Bahubali films.
If you’re doing a two-parter, the 1st part should be entertaining in and of itself, like Bahubali part 1 was. With Kalki I felt I was *enduring* part 1 in the hopes that *maybe* part 2 will pay off. That’s not a great way to feel about an entire film, especially one that’s three hours long.
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kaizokukeshav
June 29, 2024
I think the rebels and Yaskin are on the same page, that Kalki is about to be born after 6000 years. That’s why the rebels are saving the pregnant women while Yaskin is hellbent on killing him. Most of the dialogues in the movie went so fast that these details couldn’t be understood.
Is Yaskin like Kamsa who wants to kill Krishna even before getting born ? Or is he Arjuna since he was able to handle Gandeevam bow ? It’s a little confusing what his motivations are.
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KK
June 29, 2024
Arjun was able to handle Gandeevan because of Krishna. And because Yaskin got a sliver of Krishna’s essence, he was able to handle Gandeevan.
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Madan
June 30, 2024
This could have been another Bramastra but for the banter in Prabhas’ fight scenes, somewhat better dialogue writing and…a better utilization of Amitabh Bachchan who had nearly saved that film too. As Prem Rogue put it, the visual world didn’t quite come together and remained a mish mash of influences. I don’t even like Stars Wars very much at all but while watching Kalki, I had to marvel at the clarity of Lucas’ vision in comparison. AB did the heavy lifting both literally and metaphorically here to make the film more engaging than it may have been otherwise. Also, a little backstory to establish just how ‘Complex’ had sucked every last drop of resource from the planet to render the 2898 AD state would have helped communicate the motivation behind the Rebels’ fight better (though it could still be inferred). Overacting Haasan in Aalavandhan mode didn’t work at all for me, maybe he will have more to do and will do it better in pt-2. Well, he may finally get to go head to head with ‘tall Bombay star’ after all!
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Madan
June 30, 2024
SPOILER
The switch up of Bhairava originally being thought of as Kaalabhairava by the Kashi elder and eventually being revealed as a rebirth of Karna was confusing. I checked if there was a mythological connection between the two and there wasn’t. Maybe it was just a bit of licence taken by Nag Ashwin in this regard?
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