(1997) Kaalia
(In Hindi with English subtitles)
CRIME DRAMA ACTION
It opens with Kali (Mithun Chakraborty) managing to escape jail, and is in pursuit of some gov't ministers. And by the time he meets one of them by posing as a pastor, he then asks about the whereabouts of a person name Jyoti before he accidentally kills him. At this point viewers are oblivious in terms of his relationship between him and the person he is looking for. And at this point, Kali had already killed two ministers and this just adds one more. As a result of this police blunder of protecting one of the ministers, the commissioner then assigns ACP, Priyanka Sinha (Deepti Bhatnagar) to the case tracking or arresting Kali. Kali then puts on another disguise with a fake mustache and out of coincidence, manages to save wealthy magnate, Mahesh Malhotra and his servant/ assistant Nandal Chaulcy (who is comic relief) from five people who were attempting to rob them. Mahecsh then employs him to be his bodyguard/ servant, but this time not as Kali, but as Kaalia- hence the title. And it is not long before he and his bratty teenage daughter, Priya got off on the wrong foot. As soon as the father informs his daughter what happened, she then attempts to exploit the situation by getting her peers involve by getting two of them to jump him from behind. And when that didn't work, she then tries to embarrass him by getting him to fetch her tennis ball. When Kaalia rebels, he then slaps her before he lectures her. And it was at this point, she begins to show a little interest in him and follows him around, asking around for a person name Jyoti once arriving at a brothel of all places. And during on one of Priya and Kaalia private meetings, she then brings up the name Jyoti. It was at this point, we find out Jyoti is somewhat related to her, and is perhaps the only relative she has left. And that his job used to be important as his role was collector, when some of the villagers begin complaining. We find out he defied other ministers demands of having a 500 ace land being transferred to a group of five men. For two of the main men are Pratap Singh and his obese brother, Bhavani Singh. And it appears, Kaalia had been framed for shooting and killing one of the head ministers. Pratap manages to achieve this by using a pistol before placing Kaalia's fingerprints on it as his goons were holding him. The corrupt and dirty cop then arrests him, putting him and his daughter/ niece in a complex situation. They eventually get split up when as soon as Kali/ Kaalia escapes, he then goes on a obsessive rant to find Joti's disappearance ever since. She is eventually discovered sold to a brothel, he exacts revenge with more revelations. Such as the cop assigned to tracking Kali/ Kaalia used to be a couple.
I do not hate the movie, but at the same time, it is still not very good, particularly the unfunny comic relief. Many of these are reminiscent to Spaghetti Westerns as they are quick film making with unconvincing fights as they are over the top with singing and dancing. Pure escape entertainment.
