Rajasekhar after scoring a hit with PSV Garuda Vega is coming up this time with another interesting project Kalki, based on true events. Director Prasanth Varma on the other hand, delivered decent hit with maiden directorial Awe. Will Rajasekhar continue the hit spree? Will Prasanth break second film jinx?
A brutal murder of Kollapur MLA Narsappa’s (Ashutosh Rana) younger brother Sekhar Babu (Sidhu Jonnalagadda) leads to chaos. Suspecting the opposition leader Perumandlu (Shatru) in the murder, Narsappa men attack him. Meanwhile, IPS Officer Kalki (Rajasekhar) joins to investigate the murder case. In the process he finds that before Sekhar Babu’s murder, two mass massacres happened near the same village, one is in the Krishna River and the other is in nearby village Nagulakona. Who’s behind all these murders? What’s the motive?
Prasanth Varma proved his mettle with debut directorial Awe which was not a regular thriller. In Kalki as well, Prasanth discussed many subjects like initial days of pre Independence India, Razakar Movement, Kingship, Aristocracy and Feudalism in Hyderabad (Telangana) province etc. Suspense factor is continued till the end with back to back bang on twists in last 15 to 20 minutes, when we conclude a point on the real culprit. But too many sub-plots, complex and unrealistic narration played spoilsport as common audience scratch their heads in confusion.
Prasanth Varma however succeeded to juice the best work from all the technical team members. Dasaradhi Shivendra with his camera angles created different moods in dissimilar situations, wherein Shravan Bharadwaj elevated the visuals with background score. Songs are not necessary for films in this genre. Thankfully, the film has just couple of songs. While one is a situational romantic song, the other is a special number included forcibly for masses. Goutham Nerudu’s poor editing work resulted in very much confusive narration. Production values of Happy Movies are good.
Onto performances, Rajasekhar is always a good choice for this sort of films. Though he lost charm because of age factor, with his exceptional show proved that age is just a number. But excess heroism is unnecessary for thrillers and Rajasekhar should know this. Rahul Ramakrishn got a meaty, lengthy role and he made full use of it with witty and innocent acts. This character travels all along with Rajasekhar for entire run time. Sidhu Jonnalagadda is a surprise package and Ashutosh Rana is regular. The female leads Adah Sharma, Nandita Swetha and Poojitha Ponnada along with familiar Shatru are not given enough space. Nasser as usual has come up with good performance.
Rajasekhar
Cinematography
BGM
Twists
Complex Narration
Unnecessary episodes
Songs
Serious Template
Unrealistic
A story can be unfold in many ways. But, a skillful director, weitee only knows the best way to narrate an ordinary story in engaging manner. Awe looked to be a different film because of the unique, intriguing narration. Coming to Kalki, Prasanth Varma and team in the process to unveil few twists in the end have included many unnecessary sub-plots and the story-telling was made unrealistic, complicated.
Movie begins on interesting note with a man briefing the history of village from pre independence era to Razakars movement to the ruling shift from kingship to landlords in present time. When we brainstorm to remember the characters, Sekhar Babu’s murder deviates our focus. Two characters, an investigative journalist and a police officer begin to crack the murder mystery to know the motive behind. In the course, gratuitously each and every character is shown pretentious and mysterious. The mass murders in different places, however generate some interest. Towards interval, the police officer doubts Narsappa’s involvement in brother’s murder, promising more thrills in the offing in second half.
Latter half begins on tedious note with another unnecessary episode, fight between police and naxallites which is meant to discuss feudalism back then and to create differences between the lead pair. After few revelations, the pace again slows down with uncalled incidents. But, Sekhar Babu’s flashback was bang on followed by few other twists towards end throwing a surprise.
All in all, Kalki emerged as an average flick because of convoluted narrative, many and preventable sub-plots and too many characters. Rajasekhar was good in his role and Rahul too gave some relief. But, better screenplay would have changed prospects though had unpredictability. CJ goes with 2.5 stars and we need to wait and see how it performs at box office.