I have to be honest, Kalki 2898 AD was a movie that was a bit of a chore to sit through. This is a big budget Indian movie that is a prime example of style over substance. I came into this with pretty high hopes after reading the synopsis and checking out the trailer, it looked like some kind of Indian hybrid of Star Wars and X-Men, but with an Indian mythology twist.
How to Download Kalki 2898 AD
Kalki 2898 AD was released on 27 June 2024. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform such as Netflix. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review: Kalki 2898 AD
To be fair, I am 100 percent ignorant of the Indian mythology that this story is based on so I had to just take it all at face value. Basically, we have a character called Ashwatthama who is a warrior, deity, god, demi-god, honestly even when the movie ended, I had no actual clue what exactly he was!
Anyway, Ashwatthama ends up in trouble after an assassination attempt and he is cursed with immortality. The only way for Ashwatthama to end this curse is to protect the mother of Kalik who is going to be the avatar of the god Vishnu. The first half of the movie was something that I found really hard to follow.
The Setting of Kalki 2898 AD
It takes place in the year 2898, hence the title. There is this big evil guy who lives in a pyramid that oversees the city and he is pretty much this movie’s version of Palpatine. He has an army at his disposal to take down any rebels and he does this super weird experiment/procedure with fetuses!
There is so much going on that I legit had a very hard time of keeping track of who is who and who hates who and why people are doing what they are doing. Instead, I kind of just sat back and went on this wild ride which thanks to the amazing action scenes did ensure that I had a fun time with this movie, even if I was not sure all the time what was going on. Perhaps if you are more familiar with this mythology, it would be easier to follow.
Pacing Issues in Kalki 2898 AD
The thing is, if the movie were say 90 minutes or even two hours, that would be fine, but this thing goes on for the better part of three hours and that first hour is kind of hard to sit through. Not just because I had a hard time following it, but there are more than a few failed attempts at humor that do not land. It is not terrible, but it is like the second half is a different movie! I wonder if they may have been better off making this two movies instead of one really long one.
Final Thoughts on Kalki 2898 AD
Heck, during the second half, I did not know what was going on, but I was still having fun as the action was so intense and well done. They probably could have summed up what went down in the first hour in like ten minutes and I would have been no more lost than I was. To be fair, this could have been just me and you may have no trouble following the movie at all.
I am sure that there will be some people who love this and not just for the action like I did. However, for me, this was a movie that was just all style and very little substance. The thing is, I could watch it again to see if I could follow the plot better a second time, but this lasts for three hours and I really do not want to do that!
