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Kalki 2898AD is the fourth Bollywood (or similar) movie I’ve seen on the big screen, and they do produce a very mixed bag of results, but I do try to work out in advance whether a film is really going to worth the overlong three hours of their duration, since very few directors seem to realise how long their films need to last.
I went to watch this one because it had a futuristic, sci-fi bent, which would look good on the big screen, and giving a Mad Max-style feel, also with a Fury Road bent in terms of plot, along with the fact that there’s a pregnant woman in both who they’re trying to protect.
For this aspect, fertile young women are being kidnapped for the secretive Project K, but they have to be able to carry a particular serum to term, for 150 days. If they can’t manage that, then the future doesn’t look good for them. On the plus side, it’s a very SHORT future(!)
However, after an opening full of religious mumbo jumbo, Kalki 2898AD doesn’t know whether it wants to be humourous or more of a serious film, since one or two characters throw in some levity – such as Commander Manas (Saswata Chatterjee – Crew), on arrival, making a off-the-cuff joke about the various management-style guys he meets, about them all wearing matching uniforms, before things all move on in a more strict demeanour.
It also goes a bit ‘Star Wars‘ with a rebel alliance from Shambala, who want to break he pregnant heroine – Sum 80 (aka Sumati) (Deepika Padukone) – out after she’s kidnapped. Okay, Princess Leia wasn’t up the duff (thankfully, given Luke was involved), but anyway…
Then, there’s some flashback scenes, bringing in the stunning Disha Patani as Roxie, but just as soon as I’m hoping for more, she never shows up again!
I wrote a fair few notes for this, but looking back, I haven’t used a lot of them, because the whole thing was complete gibberish, such as one character stating if her baby is born, then there’s darkness for 6000 years. Huh?!
The humour in the script also disappears after the first hour, and the whole shebang trundles on for a further two hours, plus a ten-minute interval. Someone needs a slap for making this run on twice as long as it needs to. And there was me thinking Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 would be a hard slog…
There is also a mid-credits scene, that appears very early on:
For the curious, aside from Crew, the other two films are Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Turbo.
Kalki 2898AD was in cinemas last weekend, and is back again from Friday, and at a later date on Apple TV+, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 181 minutes (plus interval)
Release date: July 5th 2024
Studio: Vyjayanthi Network
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 2/10
Director: Nag Ashwin
Producers: C Ashwini Dutt, Priyanka Dutt, Swapna Dutt
Screenplay: Nag Ashwin
Music: Santhosh Narayanan
Cast:
Bhairava: Prabhas
Ashwatthama: Amitabh Bachchan
Supreme Yaskin: Kamal Haasan
Sum 80: Deepika Padukone
Roxie: Disha Patani
Bujji (voice): Keerthy Suresh
Kyra: Anna Ben
Veeran: Pasupathy
Commander Manas: Saswata Chatterjee
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.