Hey, have you seen this new movie, Kaal? Yunno, the scary movie about tigers and stuff. [Hindi movie and scary - doesn’t it sound like an oxymoron.] To this, I go hee, hee, hee.. and laughed till my stomach hurt. My dear friend took it personally and got all red and angry and challenged me to watch it, and after this, if I still have the courage to watch another scary movie alone in the night, she will treat me. Well, this has not happened to me since I watched Dracula, Evil Dead, or some other movie of this sort.
For our Hindi movie directors, somehow the synonym for scary is always loud shrieks, screams, and of course, the economically-dressed heroines with sleazy cheap rated scenes.
Well, coming to the challenge - Hindi movie and scary –that was what prompted to me to watch this movie with skimpily clad heroines, and of course, how can one forget the eeeeeeeeeeeeek… scream. Well, I really could not sleep that night, not because the movie was scary but because somehow I had a feeling my tympanic membranes could not bear the high pitched, noisy, and dangerous screams escaping from, I think it was, Lara.
I wonder how much the director/producer must have saved on the heroines’ clothes.
A Look On The Positive Side
Not to say, the movie was a complete failure. The locations are definitely breathtaking.
If you are a fan of Ajay Devgan or John Abraham, guess you can watch this movie, but with a word of caution, don’t expect to be scared and of course, one strict mantra which I follow for all Hindi movies – never question – why or how- just watch.
I have seen better performances by Vivek Oberoi, and his acting does seem a little muted compared to John Abraham where he seems utterly confused what emotion he wants to portray (growling, cursing at inappropriate times and quite often).
Ajay Devgan does a little justice to his scene with his attire and his dialogues (mostly shayiri which are sometimes thought provoking and sometimes you just want to shut him up).
John Abraham is definitely a treat to the eyes with his balanced acting.
John Abraham (Krish Thapar) and Riya (Esha Deol) are wildlife photographers from National Geographic (imagine the plight of National Geographic) to investigate some unusual killings in Orbit National Park (where have I heard this before.. Corbett.. ring a bell?) Then we have Vivek Oberoi, Lara Dutta (am sure you wont forget her screams after this movie and will keep echoing similar to a 48-hour train journey where you cannot stop feeling the jolting and jerky movements), Vishal Malhotra, and Kuishal Punjabi who just want to have some excitement in their drab life. When mysteriously out of the blue, or should I say, out of the tree, a monkey emerges with a devilish grin in his peanut-stained teeth and his mesmerizing and ghoulish eyes sneering at you and more mysteriously manages to get both of their vehicles punctured at exactly the same spot. You wonder what the monkey wants – more peanuts or bananas perhaps from their human counterpart or is it – hmm.. I sincerely don’t know what it wants, so the monkey with its task accomplished, melts off into the background or should I say hops off, and its more advanced form, carry on into the dense jungle.
The whole story revolves around most of the group getting killed when Ajay acts as their guide to get them out of the jungle.
Here is another favorite scene..
Later into the deep jungle, they are surrounded by tigers (not 1, not 2, but about 5-6 of them.. do we still have so many tigers left) and when all the girls have strained their vocal chords to the max and could scream no longer, and Vivek and John are finished biting their nails, enters Ajay fully dressed in black with a stick to ward off the tigers. Don’t ask me the relationship between the stick and the tiger or Ajay and the tiger.. (I just know about the carrot and the stick). All the tigers are suddenly scared no less than a poor underfed house cat and run away into the jungle.
The less said the better about the Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika’s item number which was totally uncalled for.
**[Have edited the above para as I’m not sure of the sequence where it appears in the movie.]
Another thing what I could not understand is why is Riya so incessantly thirsty throughout the movie – must be all the screaming I guess.
Here is another interesting one:
When the night is slowing creeping in and the sun has given up his journey, the group rather Kali (that is Ajay Devgan for you) finds a dilapidated house for them to rest but not before he in clear terms, and should say, a million times asks them to – not to drink water from the well. Imagine you are in a supposedly spooky forest with most of your friends getting killed and you get to stay in a sinister looking house, and to top it, someone warns you not to drink water from the well. So what do you do- You don’t wake anyone up, you don’t ask your guide (Kali) where you can get water, but you first run to the well and draw water and drink it up even after hallucinating about your dead friend sitting in the well and sneering at you.
All in all, it is a different movie for sure (no pun intended) and really could have pulled it off if the director (Soham Shah) were a little more original and imaginative and not inspired (ahu, ahu.. copied) from several Hollywood films (Final Destination, Anaconda, Wrong Turn, etc.)