When Dharma meets Verma !. Review on Kaal

Chaos. That is one word I would used to describe the ‘Kaal’ experience. Right from the day of announcement of a thriller from the Johar camp, it was certain they were entering unknown wilderness and unexplored territory but the it isn’t the first time a production house has gone on to try a new products and it isn’t always that you are disappointed. This time you are.

‘Kaal’ is chaos exemplified which you would realize easily from the fact that the writer-director Soham has worked with both Karan Johar and Ram Gopal Verma. It is certainly an impressive resume to have but what is unimpressive is the fact that the kid decided to give to script to the Johar’s rather than Ram Gopal Verma. Right from the plot to it’s execution you get the typical RGV vibes. Even the background score is by Salim-Suleiman who are known for their outstanding contribution to ‘Bhoot’ why then did Karan Johar- known for his mushy love stories decide to produce it ?

By his own admission in an interview Karan Johar said that Dharma production did not even know where to arrange fake blood from for a thriller which was going to use gallons of it ! It is clear that the producers simply do not have the cutting edge to make such a movie, and it’s not their fault !

Another negative point is that ‘Kaal’ is promoted wrongly. The promotions though outstanding and excessive give a few wrong messages. The first is about the tigers. Each and every actor who gave and interview for the 'MTV Big Picture' couldn’t stop talking about the tigers but when you see the movie, the tigers are for a few scenes only, the real tiger of the movie is Ajay Devagan who is surprisingly left out of the promotions !

The story is something we have all heard before. Krish and Riya (John and Esha) are wildlife experts who come to the Orbit national park somewhere in UP to investigate the mysterious deaths occurring due to man eating tigers in the jungle and reports of illegal poaching going on, there they come across Vivek Oberoi’s cool gang who is there for some masti and adventure. The rest of the supporting cast create the usual fear and stuff and one by one the members of the cool gang start dieing mysteriously (ya as if that were new !!) Is it the tigers, or is there a serial killer loose ? Enter Ajay Devgan, Kali a self proclaimed king of Jungle of whom even the tigers are scared off to save the gang and help them escape. He makes than aware of the jungle rules, but the kids as usual are foolish to break them and then they die when they do so ! So what is killing them ? Who would survive......... frankly it’s not hard to find out !!

The Script is half baked, chaotic and has taken influences from every kind of thriller right from ‘I Know what you did last summer’ to ‘Bhoot’ to ‘Darna Mana hai’. The opening track by Shah Rukh and Mallika is outstanding and so is the background score by the talented Salim Suleman. The action sequences are well executed. The dialogues are not bad.

Amongst the cast Ajay Devgan does an outstanding job but his role is badly written. Amongst others John Abraham does justice to his role, so does Vivek Oberoi but again there are many flaws in the characterization. Lara is terrible and simply wasted and Esha will never learn to act. The Doel girl hams totally. Of special mention is the scene in which she feels thirsty (she seems to feel thirsty all the time !) and she want to have some water. She acts as if she is having an epileptic fit because of lack of water ! The rest of the supporting cast do a very good job.

On the whole, ‘Kaal’ is a disappointment. Dharma production must leave these thrillers for the Verma camp, I wonder how much he would have laughed seeing this one !