Prima facie, the title of the movie scared me. Being not so good in grammar (particularly Hindi grammar) during my school days, I misinterpreted the title ‘Kaal’ to be something relating to Tenses.
The star cast for the movie I thought would include some of my scary ex- Hindi teachers terrorizing viewers by imparting some extremely deadening and irksome lectures on Bhoot Kaal (Pat tense), Bhavishya Kaal (Future tense) and Vartmaan Kaal (Present tense) and not to mention present continuous, past continuous and past perfect which at least I was never able to perfect.
But despite such severely monishing title, I attempted an escapade (Honestly speaking the temptation of watching “Maal”-aika Arora Khan saltating away on big screen with another Khan was too tempting to snub).
And guess what! the movie actually turned out to be an escapade, and a frightful one too.
Actually there are two ways of describing a frieghtful experience while watching a movie and there is very thin line separating the two.
A Homophonic example of “ frightening” experience of first kind would be Subhash ‘ iski to’ Gai’s “ Taal”, . Another more popular example of such kind is “ Main Prem ki diwani hoon”, where screenplay is designed to haunt and invoke viewers worst hidden fear in most horrendous manner.
And then you have movies like “ Bhoot” and “ Vaastu Shastra”, to quote a few from Bollywod, where the gripping pace of the movie, sequence of events and few unnerving moment thrown at unexpected junctures can almost make one scream out of sleeps with cold quivers.
In the movie however, we are talking of a mixture of the above two kinds of “fear”.
There are spellbinding moments that are bound to send a chill down your spine and then there are others where you “fear” going insane watching some real atrocious and “ funny rather then scary” stuff happening around.
Actually this movie is all about losing. Losing your nails by few centimeters (or meters in case of females), thanks to some par excellent background score by Salim-Sulaiman and patchy but at times astute direction by director Soham .
While the combination of the two succeeds in affrighting the living daylights out the viewers; images of semi clad Ishika (Lara Dutta) , Riya (Isha Deol) and Krish (John Abrahim) , annoying characterization of Dev (Vivek Oberoi), repeated appearance of a gazing owl, hanging bat and a wry tree and finally an unimaginative and inane climax will have you rapidly loose (pull) your hair out of frustration.
And if semi-decomposed faces, neckless bodies, blood and gore do not scare you, then wait for “ Lara Dutta”. With constant shrieks and endless howling she will surely scare the wits out of you.
The movie though is not all about loosing; as it strikes gold in certain areas like it defies stereotype filmmaking, creates a thriller like atmosphere almost till the very end, smartly placed songs and some cleverly executed horror scenes.
As is the trend, there are sponsors for the movie (both disguised and non-disguised). Laptops, camcorders (psst…real hero of the movie), news channels and even water bottles; the sponsors are everywhere in the movie. However one disguised sponsor which scores over others is our very own “ Odomos” (mosquito repellent cream).
As part of cost cutting for the film, the director has made majority of its actors (including poor animals: D) wear only bare minimum clothing viz vests for John Abrahim, bustiers for Esha and micro minis for Lara. But despite such skimpy outfits, the actors have managed to hang around in a deadly, bushy jungle.
All thanks to insect deadly “ Odomos”.
John (wild life expert) and Esha (freelance photographer) start on a project to catch real story of man-eating tigers in Corbett National Park (for some unknown reason known as Orbit National Park in the film). They run into a team of youngsters (Vivek, Lara, Vishal and Kushal) who were on their way to a farmhouse only to be mis- directed to the national park by a psychic driver.
A series of incident follows and people start disappearing or getting killed mysteriously. Enter Kaali Pratap Singh (Ajay Devagan), who is a walking directory of jungle and together with him, the surviving members try to escape from their Kaal .
Will they, wont they, who’s the killer?
Sounds interesting and looks interesting till the very end where the director messes it all, thanks to some traditional Indian supernatural touch given to a purportedly thriller.
But then if you consider it’s just a debut for the director, you turn benevolent and excuse the director for his flaws. Comparing Soham with likes of Karan Johar (KJ) and Ram Gopal Verma (RGV) , whom he had assisted earlier, would be like comparing Virender Sehwag with Sachin Tendulkar.
Not that Soham’s in his half-baritone asks ‘Sirji’ for a bubbly, but his style, approach and technique of film making although inspired from his mentors is unique and flamboyant in his own refreshing style.
And mind you, with “ Kaal” he has not attempted a “ Bhoot” as many people are contemplating. So put aside the comparisons and watch the new age cinematic approach of a young talented director at least once.
Music: There are just two songs in the movie, and for people like me who went just to watch ladies sizzle on the silver screen the song are complete Paisa Vasool . Malika Arora almost made my day before Esha and Lara came to spoil the party.
Finally huge disappointment from two much talked about “ stars” in the movie. Three tigers (or tigress) of “ Gladiator” fame and our Desi Tiger “ Ajay Devgan”.
The tigers instead of scaring the viewers are scared off themselves by high-pitched screeching and horrible sense of dressing of “ Esha “ and “ Lara”. (No wonder the tigers attack mostly males.)
Such is the tremor generated by hellish activities of the two leading ladies, the tigers have refused to reappear in the movie after just one shot where Ajay Devgan makes a grandeur entry with three of them in tow.
Ajay Devgan has yet again essayed a pigeonhole character. A character in which we are so used to watching him, of late. Kohl lined eyes, heavy baritone….all predictable.
Words of advise for him….. or on second thoughts leave it. I know his reply.
“ Main Aisa hi Hoon”.
COMMENTS INVITED