Kalki 2898 AD

Buckle up for a roller-coaster ride through cinematic chaos! The story idea is an absolute gem, brimming with potential, and the characters are nothing short of a casting director's dream-each one brimming with pizzazz and personality. But alas, their development seems to have been left in the microwave a bit too long, coming out half-baked.

The screenplay? It's flatter than a week-old soda. Though, I must admit, it does have its fizz in a few key moments, like the interval and the climax.

Dialogues? Let's just say they won't be winning any literary awards.

Now, onto the comedy-it's the kind that instead of tickling your funny bone, it goes straight for the jugular, and not in a good way. The world-building feels like it was put together with duct tape and imagination, lacking the immersive magic we hoped for.

But let's talk about the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, who is stellar as always.

Prabhas gives it his all, bless his heart.

Kamal Hassan makes a brief yet dazzling appearance, hinting at more brilliance in the next instalment.

Saswata Chatterjee? He brings his A-game, no doubt about it.

Deepika Padukone looks fine and delivers a decent performance, and her Telugu dubbing is better than that in the trailer.

Disha Patani is scorching enough to set the screen on fire in her limited screen time.

The rest of the cast, including Pashupati, Shobhana and Rajendra Prasad put in decent efforts. However, the film is sprinkled with cameos like confetti at a surprise party-most of which are more of a head-scratcher than a treat.

The action scenes? They're as disappointing as a soggy French fry.

Cinematography is serviceable, background music hits the right notes, but the songs miss the mark.

Production values are respectable, but direction sails somewhere in the middling seas of mediocrity.

Some VFX are eye-poppingly good, though.

Overall, it's a mixed bag of delights and letdowns-a cinematic hotpot where the ingredients are only half-cooked. Enjoy it for what it is, but don't be surprised if you leave the theater feeling a little unsatisfied.

The soaring epicness of second part of the film and the excellent climax were tainted by bloated, boring and technically terrible first half. It had cringe dialogues, poorly choreographed action scenes and unnecessary subplots.

The props used throughout the movie looked like cheap foam. There was too much "inspiration" drawn from Hollywood movies.

The first attempt from Nag Ashwin is average at best. I hope he improves significantly in the second part of this film. To do so, he should focus on Mahabharata and adapt it as faithfully as possible. The sci-fi elements of the movie were most disappointing, whereas, the characters from the great epic were thoroughly exhilarating!

Its very tricky to do justice to a big story in time limits of a regular movie but this does have that balance in first released part.

Good: Some key flashback context like combat b/w arjun & Karn were spot on , Story is gripping, Visuals are amazing.

Thing that can be better : Prabhas in first part , maybe they could have gone with usual dubbing of Sharad kelkar in Hindi , though time is given to build character in first half but apart from Amitabh Ji no one is able to justice to it and create connect that why first half seems boring at least in Hindi. Action is there in 1st half as well but its some thing once might want to skip but in 2nd Half you don't want to miss it.

Overall its a good blend of Indian mythology with Starwars+Scifi post apocalyptic movie.

What totally went over my head : Prabhas transition from Kal Bhairava to Karna.

A unique genre, a well written story (script) & strong characters give this movie a strong start. The extravagant visuals & very detailed crisp VFX gives the audience much needed thrill.

However, one cannot forgo the resemblance of some VFX shots have with movies like Dune, Star-wars, mad max, black panther & transformers...Although huge kudos to the team for producing a movie which is equivalent to the scale of above mentioned movies.

Pros : 1. Time taken to build characters & explain world 2. Stunts, crisp bright visuals 3. Screenplay, Direction 4. Comedy Cons : 1. Music, background score is unique but doesn't give the much needed grandeur to the visuals and scenes, repeated use of same score, abruptly high background score during stunts 2. Editing especially first half.

I just watched Kalki and it's hard to express my disappointment.

First off, the movie is riddled with unnecessary comedic dialogues that feel completely out of place, especially given the supposedly intense theme. Prabhas, who is usually a powerhouse, sadly comes across as a CLOWNISH character here.

His performance is awkward and forced, making it difficult to take the film seriously. Kyra's character adds little value, with most of her screen time dedicated to pointless talks that drag the narrative down. The entire movie feels like it's overdoing everything-be it the action sequences, emotional moments, or the supposed "comedy," which is jarringly out of sync with the rest of the movie.

Kamal Haasan, despite being a legendary actor, has almost no role or screen presence. It feels like they used his name just to draw audiences, with no real contribution from him on-screen.

Additionally, the set-up blatantly borrows from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) but fails miserably to capture the essence of the original. In the end, Kalki is a poorly executed, overhyped mess.

This one is a hard pass.