If ‘spectacular storytelling’ had a face, it would undoubtedly belong to
Kalki 2898 AD. A visual extravaganza backed by an authentic narrative, a nod to diverse historical, philosophical, cinematic and pop-culture influences and inferences but managing to leave a mark of its own and a solid finger on the pulse of both mythology and science-fiction, Kalki is a rare (Indian) film in the genre which gets most of it right. More importantly, it keeps you engaged consistently through its mammoth 180-minute runtime. Whenever the storytelling lags, which it does at crucial points in the first half, the film’s magnificent visual palette, complete with larger-than-life flourishes and adrenaline-pumping action choreography, comes to the rescue.

Kalki begins powerfully with the climax of the Kurukshetra war, where Lord Krishna curses Ashwatthama, son of Dronacharya, to eternal life, destined to endure centuries of endless suffering until he saves Kalki — the final avatar of Vishnu, who will purge the world of evil. Ashwatthama is played by Amitabh Bachchan, but his digitally de-aged version in the opening moments of the film counts as one of its rare weak links. Thankfully, 6,000 years later, we get to see the Bachchan of today — with longer hair and even longer beard — as Ashwatthama.

The world in the present day, however, resembles a ravaged battlefield with everything — food to water to clean air — being at a premium. A state of lawlessness where God has been ‘banished’ from the land exists in Kasi where an all-powerful subjugating force called Supreme (a levitating Kamal Haasan buried under layers of prosthetics) runs his dictatorship. In a sideways nod to The Handmaid’s Tale, pregnant women — one of which is Deepika Padukone’s Sum-80 (aka Sumati) — are subjected to a top-secret experiment called ‘Project K’ and then disposed off. Bounty hunters abound — the most streetsmart among them being Bhairava (Prabhas) — and the price for everything in this anarchic dystopian land is bartered in units. All power is wielded from within a ‘Complex’, a towering inverted pyramid structure that is out of bounds for common people.
Neighbouring Shambala is a hidden refuge for a band of rebels drawn from different faiths and cultures, led by Mariam (Shobhana), who are trying to wage a war against this corrupt system.

Everything comes to a head when Sumati is recognised as the chosen one to birth Kalki. As Ashwatthama’s wait ends and Bhairava’s true identity is discovered, the quest to save Sumati and her unborn child becomes the central focus of Kalki 2898 AD.

Ashwin, who melded the real with the real very successfully in Mahanati a few years ago, doesn’t distort mythology in order to serve his story. Even while keeping alive the legend of Ashwatthama and the hope for Kalki to rise and save mankind, he fashions a futuristic drama which, in many ways, embodies the world we live in today.

The filmmaker’s influences — DC to Marvel, Avengers to anime, Blade Runner to Dune to Transformers along with the over-arching narrative of The Mahabharata — are evident at every point in Kalki. But unlike many others in its genre, the film packs in enough originality to not be reduced to a derivative epic.

The second half, in particular, sparkles with montage after montage of action and emotion, with the epical moments being served by the final 30 minutes when Bhairava and Ashwatthama face off in Shambala. Prabhas has the body and the screen presence but it is Bachchan, at age 80-plus, who steals the thunder in some spectacularly-mounted action scenes.

A lot of money — Rs 600-crore, give or take a few — has been spent on Kalki, and thankfully it shows. Unlike Brahmastra where the VFX was repetitive and even shoddy in parts, the digital work in Kalki — futuristic drones, the Complex and Bhairava’s ‘woman Friday’ Bujji (Batmachine meets Transformers, voiced by Keerthy Suresh) is of the highest level and elevates one’s movie-viewing experience. The dialogues — which use a fair bit of English and colloquial Hindi — don’t grate like in Adipurush or Brahmastra. However, we are sure that a lot would have been lost in translation, with Kalki being dubbed into Hindi from Telugu.

The ceetee-taali moments in Kalki also arise from its star cameos, most of which are a delight. While heartthrobs Vijay Deverakonda and Dulquer Salmaan will make you go ‘oooh’, it is actually the ‘non-actors’ — directors Ram Gopal Varma and SS Rajamouli — who steal the spotlight. Rajamouli, in particular, is a hoot, his character’s brief exchange with Bhairava alluding to many a Bahubali reference that the man directed and Prabhas was the leading man in. The supporting cast comprises an eclectic bunch of which Anil George is impactful and Saswata Chatterjee, in an important part, is expectedly solid. Disha Patani’s presence is shorter than some of the film’s cameos. The music is perhaps one of the film’s rare missteps.

Kalki 2898 AD ends on a high and with the promise that it will be back. ‘Kalki Cinematic Universe’, we wait for more!