Kaal is a huge disappointment and a very big letdown from Dharma productions . The way the movie had been promoted, it had garnered a lot of audience curiosity and attention. However 20 minutes into the movie you slowly realize that you may not be able to sit through this again. Honestly, you can watch the story once but not more than that. I cant help thinking that maybe the whole audience would have been appreciated the film, had it been not so aggressively promoted or if it would have been released as a movie produced by some other company.
The plot is so much on the lines of shhhh..koi hai. John and Esha are national geographic researchers who wanna get to the bottom of some strange killings in the jungle. They end up exploring the place with another group of people (Vivek, Lara, Vishal, Sajith) . The plot then meanders cluelessly from hackneyed running-away-from-the-unknown kind of situations while the body count keeps increasing. Ajay Devgan as Kali, makes a grandiose entry with three tigers in tow but is unable to do anything spectacular after that.
What doesn’t make sense:
1) Why are the girls so inappropriately attired in the jungle? Inspite of wearing very little clothes, they don’t endure any pest/insect bites, which should have been the case.
2) When Vishal is capturing the group on camera, didn’t he notice the glitch (People who have seen the movie will understand)
3) Was there actually a need to get the tigers that were used in ‘Gladiator’ ; and when the producers did get them why weren’t the tigers utilized for a few more scary situations.
What disappointed me:
The no-show by the tigers. I mean the tigers are shown only once in all their glory at the time of Ajay’s entry. I felt that watching the tigers (breathtaking) was the only paisa wasool element for me. It would have been awesome if they had shown at least a couple of more scenes with the big cats. Also the suspense of the movie is so unbelievable that it was as if the screenplay wasn’t going anywhere and the director decided to end the movie abruptly.
Haywire characterizations:
Vivek’s character ’Dev’ is as irritating as hell and as his girlfriend Lara , complements him with her harried nature. Her screaming must have scared half of the jungle animals if not more. Amidst all these bad characterizations, John’s acting/presence is the only relief. Funny part is although Esha Deol is John’s wife in the story; there is absolutely no chemistry between them while we are shown a lot of (unwanted, irritating) chemistry between Vivek and Lara.
Trust me when the suspense is revealed and the movie draws to a close, you are sure to say ’Aww come on, what was that’. Kaal is a huge letdown but maybe entertaining for people who walk into the theatre with little or no expectations.