Sadaf Shaikh
The trailer for Kalki 2898 AD dropped last evening and for the last 20 hours, everyone has been drawing comparisons between Nag Ashwin’s Telugu science fiction magnum opus and Dune, Star Wars, Mad Max: Fury Road and Blade Runner 2049. Look, the honest truth is that if you want to show a post-apocalyptic wasteland, “sand as far as the eye can see” is a pretty standard aesthetic. Kalki 2898 AD has been made with a budget of ₹600 crore, making it the most expensive Indian film to date, a record previously held by films like Brahmastra (2022) and Adipurush (2023)—incidentally both also mythological films. While I’ll reserve judgment until June 27, here are 18 thoughts I had while watching the trailer for the film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Prabhas, Kamal Hassan and Disha Patani among others.
- There’s a badass truck being driven in a desert. Okay, it is giving Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Kashi, present-day Varanasi, is apparently the last habitable city in the world.
- There’s a big, inverted pyramid in the city, on the top of which there is believed to be water, but one family has monopolised it. I’m getting House Harkonnen vibes.
- Amitabh Bachchan’s deep baritone scratches an itch in my brain.
- Deepika Padukone is holding her stomach. If she’s pregnant, this is the fourth movie after Bajirao Mastani (2015), Brahmastra (2022) and Jawan (2023) in which she will play the mother of a “saviour”.
- Oh wait, she’s giving birth to a God? Not her first rodeo. (Cue Alia Bhatt screaming, “Shivaaaaaa.”)
- Amitabh Bachchan, who plays Ashwatthama, the son of Dronacharya, has just leapt from a rock and done a superhero landing.
- Now, he’s picked up three men in each arm and will most likely not set them down softly.
- Prabhas’s entry on-screen is so quintessentially South Indian.
- A flawless flying kick executed by—who else—Disha Patani.
- Disha chastises Prabhas, whose name is Bhairava—a manifestation of Lord Shiva—for only loving himself which, in Indian cinema, is shorthand for “I’m going to make you eat your words, Disha.”
- Bhairava is alerted to a five-star bounty for someone called Sum-80. Nice wordplay considering Sumati is the mother of Kalki as per Hindu mythology.
- The camera pans to Deepika Padukone in the next scene so could she be Sumati? Or is she Padma, as originally shown in the poster? I sense a plot twist.
- Okay, there are a lot of explosions.
- Amitabh Bachchan has brought a whole vehicle to a shrieking halt with one leg.
- Amitabh Bachchan has sent Bhairava flying through three walls. Dude could definitely use some anger management.
- Kamal Haasan, who plays the film’s antagonist Kali, looks like Kancha Cheena from Agneepath (2012) 200 years in the future. (And also a bit like Vladimir Harkonnen, if you think about it).
- Prabhas has jumped out of his Bumblebee-looking car and done another superhero landing.