What can you do but laugh at a bunch of visitors who go around a spooky, scary forest populated by man-eating tigers and a suspected ghost, doing ridiculously stupid things that scream: “Eat me, Eat me, pick me first!”
It’s okay to borrow the storyline from a movie but borrowing a storyline from just a movie title is a little too much. But, Kaal is a ‘whodunnit’ that has tigers (instead of lions) and a ghost in the list of prime suspects. Talk about ‘The Ghost and the Darkness,’ taken literally, for a storyline.
Here’s how to make watching ‘Kaal’ further interesting.
Prepare a list of thriller/horror flicks — Sixth Sense, The Ring, The Village, Final Destination, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Blair Witch Project, Omen or even Bhooth, Vaastu Shaastra or any from Ramsay Brothers. And after every scene, scratch out the name of the movie that reminds of the sequence/shot/scene in ‘Kaal.’
What does a heavily inspired product/ this-is-my-tribute-to-horror-movies look like?
It looks like ‘Kaal,’ which makes even ‘Scary Movie’ look sober.
Kaal is super entertaining, for the following reasons:
1. A good looking cast with bad make-up, mouthing the corniest of lines, so much that you want to get up and say what Mr. Attitude Vivek Oberoi says throughout the flick at the drop of the cap: “Cut the crap.”
Oh, there’s Esha Deol trying a host of things to distract you from her well-toned Dharmender muscles, one of them being her cleavage which gets more screentime than her and the others include attempted acting. There’s John Abraham who wears a ‘What am I doing in this movie’ look consistently throughout and Oberoi’s Nth effort in feeling up an extremely hawt Lara Dutta.
2. Awesome camerawork and sound: Santosh Thundiyil (cinematographer) and Dwarak Warrier (sound engineer) have put in their best to make sure that ‘Kaal’ at least looks and sounds like a good movie.
3. Ajay Devgan, as ‘Kaali,’ the man who takes upon the challenge to help the visitors escape the forest, breathes some life into the film, purely with his electric screen-presence and kohl-lined eyes. His intro scene is probably the only good moment in the movie. Devgan walks in with his staff with some mantra in the background score and the three tigers which have surrounded the gang walk away.
4. The Shah Rukh Khan-Malaika Arora item number in the opening credits. The best thing to happen after ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ is the only reason that will make you kick yourself for missing the beginning. I’m going again, cuz I missed it!
5. Has no Karan Johar ingredient in spite of being his production. No rona-dhona. This clearly wears the stamp of a Ram Gopal Varma’s associate, which Soham was.
So yes, this is not ghost directed, at least literarily.
P.S: I got a funny sms that said: “Esha Deol is the one who trains tigers to kill people in ‘Kaal’. Vivek, Lara and John die. Enjoy the movie”!
What do you think of those who give away spoilers? 🙂
Ha ha! Naaah, don’t worry, I didn’t give away the end. That sms I got turned out to be a hoax. Something the producers did themselves to generate word of mouth publicity, I suspect.
MADRAS INK. 
lol….!
-A
No suspicion required ‘n all. It WAS started by some idiot involved in Kaal’s production, who thought its a brilliant idea
-Siddhu Warrier
im wondering if its worth spending so much paise …esp wid all da days coming this may- birth or otherwise…
OK. my first shout here. Been here a lot, but never yelled, but here goes nothing.
Did i hear “the ghost and the darkness”? Did u say two lions and a “suspected ghost”? If you were talking abt Kaal, then fine. If you were indeed talking abt the Ghost and the darkness, I don’t think there were any ghosts in there. The lions were called “the ghost” and “the darkness”. ANyway, thanks for the heads-up. Looks like this blog’s goin on my blogroll. Cheers and Peace!
Ok we wont watch this movie-you havenot writeen anything on waqt-is it watchable or not inspite of it running in some god forsaken theatre
I’ve read ur reviews in friday review.After watching kaal i felt like kicking the director with my kaal.