‘Kalki 2898 AD’ Review: Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan Film Is a Visual Spectacle

For his third feature film, Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2898 AD is quite a risk and quite the feat. Like the name suggests, the film is set in a post-apocalyptic world in 2898 AD but some of the events that push the story forward happened around 3102 BC – back when the ‘kali yug’ is supposed to have begun.

It’s an ambitious setting but the premise doesn’t differ from what we’ve come to expect from the genre – one hero who is destined to save the world, a damsel in distress, a battle between good and evil were both sides claim to be the former…you get the gist. In this case, the big bad wolf is one Supreme Yaskin (Kamal Haasan) who claims that his totalitarian regime is a direct consequence of human nature.

This post-apocalyptic world has shadows of Dune and The Handmaid's Tale – the latter seems to have had a very heavy influence. Yaskin and his followers (or anyone who can somehow earn a million units) live in the ‘Complex’ which literally and figuratively hangs above the last city on Earth – Kasi. The Complex survives by taking everything from the people of Kasi but their primary goal is to achieve the objectives of a ‘Project K’.

In the newly created social classes, women are brutally subjugated – they’re separated based on ‘fertility’ and are all imprisoned in a complex within the Complex. That being said, the movie barely actually looks into the brutality of this system – we see that the women go through horrific forms of torture but it all ends up feeling more exploitative. The commentary unlike that of The Handmaid’s Tale, is too superficial, the plight of these women is eclipsed by ‘Project K’.

So it’s no surprise that the brilliant Deepika Padukone doesn’t get to do a lot more than wait to be saved. There is, however, some hope for a bigger role in the next installment but like things stand; any layers to Padukone’s character SUM-80 come from the actor more than the characterisation. She plays SUM-80 with an authoritative air that is difficult to look away from.

To be fair, Prabhas as the bounty hunter Bhairava doesn’t get a better turn - this might even be the first time a Prabhas entry feels lackluster. While he gets his ‘hero’ moments and vanity shots, the effect that Prabhas usually has on screen doesn’t happen. Like Padukone, most of Bhairava’s charm comes from Prabhas but at some point you find yourself wondering if the character might have been more impactful with lesser screen time.

But impactful use of screen time is not this film’s strength – the film could’ve done without some of the side quests and characters.

Though his sidekick Bujji, voiced by Keerthy Suresh, is the actor at her sassy best and it’s hilarious. That being said, I do think some of the film’s humour must’ve been lost in translation for me (I tried my best to find a subtitled showing but failed).

When you look at the film’s script in its basics, it’s a fantastic concept and is definitely something novel and exciting for Indian cinema but the problem arises when the film doesn’t seem to be elevating its premise beyond what is on paper. For that reason, the screenplay feels flat and convoluted for the most part. Kalki 2898 AD’s saving grace is its visual effects – an anti to Adipurush if you will.

The world building, thanks to director Ashwin and production designer Nitin Zihani Choudhary, is magnificent. The scale at which the entire story takes place is impressive enough to overshadow some of the flaws. While you watch the futuristic world function in front of your eyes, every set piece stands out, making sure that the film, at least, doesn’t become boring. If we are to tear into the screenplay for its flaws, it would be unfair to not appreciate the sheer effort that has clearly gone into ‘making’ Kalki 2898 AD.

The conceptualisation and execution of the character of Supreme Yaskin could’ve easily felt cartoonish but instead, the character’s menace comes through. Watching Yaskin on screen feels like being stuck in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire scene where we see Voldemort in the graveyard. There are parts where the setting feels a little bit like nighttime Indian television but well, pros outweigh the cons.

This scale and these set pieces would be impossible without attention to detail and countless hours spent by a score of professionals – that massive budget has been put to good use. However, there are places where the VFX and CGI are underwhelming – de-aging Amitabh Bachchan’s character during the Mahabharata sequences ends up being comical. Why not just cast Abhishek Bachchan instead?

Speaking of, crediting only the visual design as the saving grace would be a disservice to Amitabh Bachchan who brings the foreboding Ashwatthama alive on screen. It is a complex character to play – a warrior who has been cursed with eternal life after he sent a Brahmastra towards a pregnant Uttara.

Bachchan plays the role of a repentant man who is now burdened with the responsibility of saving the world well and his baritone is perfectly suited for the character’s stature. His are also the only action sequences that don’t seem completely juvenile – almost all other sequences, barring the climax, feel like rehearsals instead of the real deal.

Everyone seems to be acting and reacting and while that is the ‘formula’, it isn’t supposed to be this evident on screen. You can almost hear the director yelling ‘cut’ or almost feel when an actor steps on their ‘mark’. It all feels too rehearsed to have an impact. It doesn’t help, then, that the background score does the film no favours.

The background score is disjointed and this makes you feel like you’re watching multiple sequences from different films pieced together. For a film that is already struggling to feel streamlined, this only makes things worse.

Kalki 2898 AD is a film that should’ve either been two films or a limited series because, as things stand, the makers seem to be doing too much with the time they have (and it’s a 3 hour runtime). Most of the plot points don’t get enough time to actually develop and some characters (crucial ones at that) end up relegated to the sidelines.

Ashwin’s film is a film of ‘effort’ more than ‘effect’ – I see what the film is going for and, like I mentioned before, it’s an impressive feat. But this is a film made for the masses, that much is obvious and it is definitely a film made for the hoots and whistles from an impressed crowd. The crowd’s energy, then, would perhaps transfer to every viewer.

­­­­Perhaps the crowd around me just wasn’t that impressed and Kalki 2898 AD might’ve fared better in a different hall.