Mahakaal

"The Monster" (aka "Mahakaal") is a fun and scary film at the same time. Yes, it's a ripoff of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", but it was so much fun for me. And the acting wasn't as bad as I expected. Not Oscar worthy. But fine for an Indian horror film. The music is taken straight from the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise. The thing that really stands out is the role of Johnny Lever. He is funny, clumsy and everything you want from Mr. Lever. The musical numbers also stands out. The comedy stands out. The villian is not the best. A cheep rip-off of Freddy Krueger. In this film called Shakaal. But overall it's a great pile of entertainment. I definitely recommend this title!

Mahakaal (The Monster) is an Indian take/ripoff of the Nightmare on Elm Street Movie.

The movie stars the quite beautiful Archana Puran Singh as Anita who gets tormented by the evil demon Shakaal, who was buried alive by her father after he had killed sacrificed several children, one being Anita's sister. Shakaal attacks Anita and her closest ones throughout the movie. Anita and her gang tries to avoid him by going on field trips and by doing a few musical numbers where they sing and dance.

The movie is made by the Ramsay brothers who might have the "honour" of being the horror kings of India. It's actually a quite decent movie visually with some colorful and creepy looking scenes. The creepiness goes quickly away however thanks to a lot of comic reliefs (and i mean A lot) and effects which are a little to simple and not so effective. They also rip off the famous soundbits from the American Freddy movies which is a good addition to this one. It also rips off a scene from Day of the Dead and a good murder scene from Nightmare on Elm Street Part III.

I wish the movie had been shorter though. Running a little over to hours is way to long for a movie like this. And there is plenty of scenes which could have been cut out. Everything including the "comic relief guy" played by Johnny Lever would have been nice since he isn't funny or have anything to add to this movie. I guess that would have made the movie 20 minutes shorter and also a much better experience. Take away the subplot with the bad dude who wants Anita as well and you got a movie that is about 80 minutes long which would be an even bigger improvement. If others feel like me then I'm sure we'll see some fanedits in the future.

There's also a problem with Hindu-Freddy. He does not speak (although he laughs a lot) or really do anything very frightening. Freddy's charisma in the American movies is one of it's biggest assets and I'm quite surprised the Ramseys didn't use that in this one. The mullet on Hindu-Freddy however gives him a little plus.

The movie was actually started on in 1988, but was put on hold when another Indian take on the Freddy movies came along called Khooni Murdaa.

Although it has it's fun parts and funny dance numbers I'd only recommend it to the ones who are curious and want to laugh at a Freddy ripoff movie. See it for the nice visual nightmare scenes and try to ignore Johnny Lever and enjoy Mahakaal.

The movie is available on a Mondo Macabre DVD which was released in the summer of '09. Support Mondo Macabre who continues to put out weird and unknown Asian cult movies! Enjoy.

This was the first Bollywood movie I've ever seen, and I have read that by Bollywood standards it's considered bad, but I got a tremendous kick out of this movie.

I rented it due to the Nightmare on Elm Street link, but I was amazed just how blatant the rip-offs are. The first half of the movie follows the original film almost exactly, even in small details. The soundtrack is a light variation of the original, but there were many scenes where it sounded like not one note had been changed.

In terms of popcorn enjoyment, this movie is delightful. There's literally something for everyone: horror, music, goofy comedy, tawdry drama. There's a little bit of gore; the only missing ingredient is nudity. The murderer is at times goofy, but he has no dialog, so the horror scenes are rarely spoiled.

Most surprising of all, Mahakaal actually has a few moments where it's genuinely good. A murder involving real cobras is very creepy, and the fact that it rips of NOES' effective soundtrack helps at times to enhance the horror. There's also a very effective musical sequence in a Disco Bar that actually helps the plot, using an interesting visual technique along with catchy music.

While no classic, Mahakaal is a must for cult movie enthusiasts. Hopefully, it's release on DVD will lead to a rediscovery.

Troubled by her recurring nightmares, a woman and her friends find themselves targeted by a deformed killer that exists only in their dream world who was originally killed years ago by their parents and forces them to deal with the killer in order to stop his deadly rampage.

This turned out to be quite the impressive and enjoyable effort. What gives this one a lot of its impact is the fact that it's so close to the original film that it allows for plenty of fun to come from these familiar elements. Once she enters the dream world, those scenes are incredibly fun as the extended opening dream of her running through the abandoned boiler room where she continually runs into the strange figure despite all the different attempts to run away gives this a strong, stylish opening as well as sets the stage for the dreams to follow. The following night, where her friend is also involved when the two of them are chased around the strange bunker is just as crazy and frantic detailing their encounters in the cobweb-riddled structures is a fantastic sequence, while the big attack at the hotel makes a strong reference to the original's strong opening sequence as well as helps itself to some censorship- imposed changes that allow for a chilling sequence. The later hallucination at the school following her dead friend into his hideout actually comes off far better in this variation with the encounter featuring the body resurrected to fight her before running into the killer for a lengthy sequence, while the jail encounter works far better here by incorporating the elements of local cinema into the attack by using poisonous snakes to add that extra level of tension to the sequence. Even the flashback sequence explaining the killers' resurrection is a rather enjoyable affair with the brawl inside the sacrificial temple and the subsequent search for the burial spot that really serves this one incredibly well by keeping the pace going to fill the engorged running time as well as give this the kind of chilling set-pieces needed to really make this one quite fun. Even the finale, where it features his attempts at getting to the family before their big confrontation with him gives this a lot of fun qualities and really let the good qualities of her possession take the forefront here. As well as offering that kind of film, the fact that it employs so many elements from Indian cinema makes for a rather enjoyable immersion, from the song-and-dance routines that offer some enjoyable pop tunes to the goofy comedic relief from the pop- obsessed classmate that even manages to crack some hilarious meta-jokes here that add to the fun. The closeness to the story in terms of how it plays out makes this one so easy to get into based on being able to recognize the plot-points and beats quite easily while allowing for the different side-tangents that bring about the different local antics that add a flavor to the film such as the goofy wordplay, dance routines and even several martial arts sequences. Now, in the end, these do end up leading the film to a few small problems in that this does feel it's length because of its tangents and side points, as the need for the constant rape attempts by the gang aren't needed not only because they add nothing to the film but also because the censorship dictates due to the country of origin mean it won't play with them anyway. That also has an effect on rendering a lot of the kills bloodless when they shouldn't, but overall these are all that's wrong with it.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and Attempted Rapes.

Mahakaal directed by tulsi and shyam ramsay is a horror, thriller and action film. It's an Indian adaptation of nightmare on elm's street. Ramsays are famous for directing horror movies. The problem with indian entertainment industry is that they exaggerate everything and that is where the beauty and aesthetics of film literature gets vanished. Mahabir bhullar as shakal is utilized just as a prop.. He has been given no dialogues. Non verbal roles are difficult to portray. One needs an effective script for portraying such a role. Robert Englund's Freddy is much higher in terms of performance compared to shakaal. The other characters are fine, but script and direction should have been much better. Adaptations should be of ideas. Once an idea is perceived, then it should be treated with complete originality. But anyway tulsi and shyam ramsay have tried their best to make mahakaal convincing. Shakaal could have been a simple looking villain too.