Why Kalki should win?

 For long , Indian (especially Hindi) film industry has been trying to recreate the Hollywood movies in India and failing for most of the times They have often ended up being all glitz with no soul. Even though the budgets, the technology have increased over time, the movies have always been cheap copies of the west.

But down South , a director named Rajamouli seemed to have discovered the DNA of a summer tentpole blockbuster. Through his initial movies he ensured that he honed his desi masala creds and slowly amped up his ambitions, culminating in the Bahubali and RRR juggernauts, which straddled the desi masala  and western technical wizardry and epicness admirably. 

He also has inspired a generation of young film makers who have now dared venture out to tell stories which wouldnt have been possible few years ago. While KGF, Salaar told stories which were at their root typical Indian masala tropes, movies like Karthikeya, Hanu-man had a wider vision, blending mythology in to the story. 

That brings us to the latest offering from the Telugu - Kalki 2898AD. For someone who has been exposed to all the sci-fi, Fantasy, super hero movies of the west, one can see bits of every such movie in Kalki.

A dystopian future world, a despot ruling with iron fist, oppressed people, a rebel faction, a prophecy, the coming of a saviour, a happy go lucky hero with a golden heart becoming The Chosen One. You name it, Kalki has it. 

But before you dismiss it as another clone of the west, its vision and scale takes you by surprise. The way the threads from our mythology, ancient epics dovetails in to a sci-fi world really takes some imagination. There is also a big leap in technology (though at some places it could have been better - or may be the 3D conversion messed up some of the CG effects). The detailing of the dystopian world, the gizmos, costumes fit in beautifully.

Its not without its flaws. Forced humour, a sparkless romantic track which doesn't go anywhere, a song and dance sequence out of nowhere bogs the movie down. 

Understandably the first half is slow with all the world building and character establishment. The second half picks up with  action set pieces and the revelations. The climax inevitably leads to a cliffhanger, setting up for the sequel in this Kalki cinematic universe.

Performances, Amitabh makes you feel the weight of the guilt he is carrying and the redemption he is seeking. The technology makes him kick ass and sending people flying all over. Prabhas, disappointingly is one note. Deepika has one expression through out. All the celebrity cameos are fun as standalone, but in the overall scheme of things they are a distraction.

Despite it succumbing to the various pitfalls of the Indian commercial film making, Kalki is an achievement. It has a vision,  blends in mythology with sci-fi efficiently and has epic written all over it. It should succeed, not just for the production of the sequel (the story is incomplete), but for it shows that the Indian directors are now not only  ready mine our own mythology, epics, history (which has thousands of such stories) but also mix them up with sci-fi to come up with modern epics.